Key Colony Beach City Hall Is Still Under Construction: Where Meetings, the Market and the Boat Parade Are This Season

For years the City Hall block on Sadowski Causeway has held most of Key Colony Beach's public life. The post office is there. Marble Hall is there, and so are the commission meetings and the Tuesday farmers market. Boats in the December parade have looped past it. This season that block is fenced off as a construction site. City business has moved to a hotel patio, the market has been voted over toward 7th Street, and the events most people circle on the calendar are being run by two volunteer groups whose traditions never needed the building at all.

If you're back for the winter, or you never left, here's where things have moved and why.

What's happening on the City Hall block

The city broke ground on December 19, 2025. As Keys Weekly reported at the groundbreaking, the project is a renovation and addition, not a full teardown. The existing structure stays. Marble Hall and the post office get hardened, and a new two-story wing goes on, at a projected overall cost of $5.5 million. A $2.28 million Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant covers part of that. The agenda for the May 21, 2026 commission meeting included a resolution to authorize a $3 million First Horizon loan for the City Hall improvements.

In January the city announced that construction and the Marble Hall renovations were starting. The Building Department moved into a temporary trailer, and visitors were asked to follow the fencing and signs because access to the post office, parking and Marble Hall would change.

The original timeline is gone. The December 2025 coverage projected substantial completion by September 2026. Then, at an April 27 commission meeting, Vice Mayor Doug Colonell called the project "very far behind schedule," according to the Florida Keys Free Press. He said the completion date was being pushed toward December, and the commission authorized him to negotiate the timeline. The same report said the commission approved a $143,798.35 change order to replace the pin piles and slab in the administration area. That slab had been removed. More change orders came on the August 20 agenda, including a five-day contract extension for insulation work.

For anyone planning their winter, this means the building is still a job site as the season starts, and the city's public life is operating somewhere else.

Why the wait buys something different

The finished building won't look like the one you remember. The plan described at the groundbreaking covers about 12,400 square feet of renovation plus a 4,200-square-foot, two-story addition. That addition is set to hold:

• A fitness center
• Offices and conference space
• An ADA-accessible lobby
• Upstairs space for the Building and Police departments, designed to work as an Emergency Operations Center
• Generator power, roof work, a new patio, landscaping, and raised, re-striped parking

The post office and Marble Hall stay where they've always been, and hardening them is part of the plan. So the gathering spots everyone knows are coming back to the same corner, with an emergency operations floor above them and a new patio outside.

Where everything went in the meantime

When the city's main building goes offline, the things it hosted have to land somewhere. Here's where the regular routines have moved.

Under a June 26 city notice, all Key Colony Beach meetings moved to the back patio of the Inn at Key Colony, 700 W. Ocean Drive, starting in July 2026. The October 22 regular meeting and the November 6 special meeting were both posted there. If you like to follow city business, meetings now come with a waterfront patio.

The farmers market move goes back to the January 22 commission meeting. Commissioners talked through post office truck access, package loading, the accessible ramp and contractor staging. Commissioner Diehl mentioned how congested the lot gets on market days. They also ruled out having the postal truck back into 7th Street, then voted unanimously to move the market to 7th Street as soon as possible.

The market opened its season on Tuesday, November 10, and runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The rest of the series falls on November 17 and 24, then every Tuesday in December through the 29th. Before you head out with your tote bag, check the city's farmers market listing for the setup location.

The season that never needed the building

With City Hall out of service, the biggest dates on the calendar this winter belong to two volunteer organizations.

The Key Colony Beach Community Association is a nonprofit, and according to its page on the city site, it sponsors and organizes the annual welcome back dinner, the coconut crawl, free Sunday afternoon concerts in Sunset Park during February and March, KCB Day, and a St. Patrick's Day parade. A single membership is $15. This year's Welcome Back Party is on the city calendar for Thursday, November 19, from 5 to 9 p.m.

The Key Colony Fishing & Boating Club runs the Christmas Boat Parade. The club took the parade over from the Community Association in 2015. On its parade page, the club says its members have plenty of boats to decorate for the hundreds of people who come from around the Keys to watch. The page also says club volunteers organize the parade, sponsors fund the prizes, and the route runs through the city's canals before ending with an awards after-party for captains and crews. This year's parade is on the city calendar for Sunday, December 13, from 5 to 9 p.m.

The parade's history shows how tied it has been to the City Hall block. A 2018 Keys Weekly account described a route through the canals and cuts that passed City Hall three times. It named the dock area behind City Hall and the post office as a viewing spot, along with Sadowski Causeway at mile marker 53.5. More recent previews kept the causeway in the picture. KeysNews in 2023 described the start at the 7th Street canal and suggested watching from Sadowski Causeway near MM 53.5.

If you want to take part this year, past editions offer a few pointers:

1. Watch from the causeway. Sadowski Causeway near mile marker 53.5 has been the recommended viewing spot for years, and it doesn't depend on the City Hall property.
2. Enter your own boat. In 2024, Keys Weekly reported that entry was free, boats of all sizes were welcome, and prizes went to the best vessels in several categories.
3. Aim for a specific award. The 2024 winners, as recapped by Keys Weekly, included Most Festive Crew, Kids' Choice, Most Creative, Most Eco-Friendly and Judges' Favorite.
4. Check with the club first. The Fishing & Boating Club's parade page is the place to look for this year's details and sponsors.

After December

The Community Association's calendar keeps going once the boats are unplugged. The Sunday concerts in Sunset Park run in February and March, followed by KCB Day and the St. Patrick's Day parade. Sunset Park is also getting shade sails and pier work through the city's grant program. Mayor Freddie Foster's August 3 grant update listed $16,790,569.28 in awarded funding, which also covers wastewater, stormwater and canal cleanup work, shade sails for the pickleball courts, and City Hall. A Sunset Park gazebo, plus restrooms at the pickleball courts and 7th Street Park, are on the list of fiscal 2027 grant applications.

Over on the causeway, WhatNow reported in August that Nauti Turtle Sports Bar & Grill was getting ready to open at 400 Sadowski Causeway. It's planned with two indoor floors, a covered patio and an outdoor bar.

Until the new wing opens, the commission meets on the Key Colony Inn patio, the market sets up toward 7th Street, and the boats decorate their own canals on December 13.

I grew up with these traditions, and I love seeing neighbors keep them going while City Hall is rebuilt. If you're thinking about what the new City Hall block, or any part of Key Colony Beach, means for a home you own or one you're eyeing, I'm happy to talk it over at Kelly Randin. Let's Connect.