Hammock Beach Fall 2026: FURYK & FRIENDS and Modern Mexx Updates

Three miles apart on the same stretch of North Ocean Shore Boulevard, two very different fall stories are playing out this year. One took four months, three public hearings, and a fight over eight parking spaces. The other took none of that, because it never had to.

Starting October 5, Hammock Beach Golf Resort's Ocean Course hosts Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS, a PGA TOUR Champions event with a 78-player field and a $2.1 million purse. Down the road at 5949 N. Ocean Shore Boulevard, the long-vacant Fusion 386 building is finally being replaced by Modern Mexx, a 92-seat restaurant that spent four months in front of Flagler County boards and commissioners just to get permission to open with fewer parking spots than code requires.

Both stories are really about the same scarce thing: space along a two-lane coastal highway with the ocean on one side and residential streets on the other. What separates them is who already owns enough of it.

What A Resort Already Owns, A Restaurant Has To Fight For

Hammock Beach didn't need a zoning variance to host a PGA TOUR Champions event. The resort's Ocean Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, already sits inside acres of golf holes, clubhouse space, and guest parking built for exactly this kind of scale. Tournament week runs October 5 through 11, with the featured pro-am and championship rounds falling October 9 through 11. Tickets start around $31 for general admission, with premium hospitality packages running higher, and gates typically open about an hour before the first tee time.

The tournament itself, hosted by 17-time PGA TOUR winner Jim Furyk and his wife Tabitha, has raised more than $5 million for Northeast Florida charities since 2021. For Hammock Beach, adding a week of televised golf to the property is less a logistical puzzle than a scheduling one. The infrastructure, the acreage, the staff who already run resort-scale events, all of it existed before the tournament ever signed on.

Modern Mexx had none of that to lean on.

What Eight Parking Spaces Cost A Small Business

The building that will become Modern Mexx sits on an L-shaped lot that current code says needs 41 parking spaces to support a restaurant its size. The owners, Mike Goodman and Bruce Garrison, asked the county for a variance to open with 33 instead, plus space for six bicycles. That is an eight-space gap between what the county requires and what the lot can physically hold once you account for setbacks and a mature oak tree the owners wanted to preserve.

The path to that variance took about four months. The site plan was filed with Flagler County in December 2025. The county's Technical Review Committee looked at it that same month. The Planning Board approved the setback exceptions in February 2026. The Flagler County Commission didn't vote on the parking variance itself until April 2026, and even then it split 3-2, with Commissioners Andy Dance and Greg Hansen voting no.

The objections weren't abstract. Residents from the Hammock Community Association and Scenic A1A Pride showed up at multiple meetings. Dennis Clark of Scenic A1A Pride argued the project was simply too much building for too small a lot. Bob Green, whose home backs up to the property on Milwaukee Avenue, told commissioners he wanted a restaurant there almost as badly as anyone, just not one sized the way this one was proposed. The owners' own application described the existing Fusion 386 building as dilapidated and a safety hazard to neighboring properties. The county eventually approved the parking variance for the new structure.

To help address the parking gap, the owners worked out an agreement with the coffee shop next door, Debra Jean's, to use five of its spaces for employees after 5 p.m. They also pointed to a precedent just up the road: Bronx House Pizza, which Goodman also owns, solved its own parking shortage by buying up additional lots nearby after residents raised the same complaints. Goodman told the commission that Modern Mexx wouldn't be a high-volume, fast-turnover concept, more curated meals than a big combo-plate menu, which was part of the case for why the seating and staffing would stay manageable even with a tighter lot.

The seating area was scaled down once already, from 1,800 to 1,500 square feet, while still holding roughly 92 people including a 20-seat bar. Staffing estimates rose too, from an initial five employees to nine, as commissioners pushed back on numbers they didn't find realistic for a restaurant that size.

The Same Week, Two Different Rhythms

If you already live in The Hammock, this is the week both of those rhythms show up on your street at once. Golf traffic builds around the resort starting October 5, with the heaviest days falling on the championship weekend of October 9 through 11. Anyone driving past the Ocean Course that week should expect more cars, more shuttle activity, and gate times that start early, since spectator gates generally open about an hour ahead of the first tee groups.

Down the road, Modern Mexx is still moving through construction after its April approval, and as of this fall it doesn't have a confirmed opening date. The restaurant listing for the property still shows hours as "TBA" for later in 2026, which tracks with a project that only cleared its last county hurdle a few months ago. Whenever it does open, the five-space arrangement with Debra Jean's kicks in specifically for after 5 p.m., which suggests dinner service, not lunch, is where the real parking crunch is expected to show up first.

The Actual Lesson In The Two Stories

None of this is really about golf or tacos. It's about what it takes to add anything new to a stretch of coastline that's mostly built out already. A resort with acreage and staff can absorb a PGA TOUR Champions event inside its own existing footprint, and the biggest planning question is which week works for the tour schedule. A small restaurant on a half-acre lot has to negotiate for every parking space it doesn't already have, sometimes literally spot by spot with the business next door.

That difference in leverage is the actual story of development along this part of A1A, and it's worth knowing if you live here, because it explains a pattern you've probably already noticed. The big things, resort events, club renovations, tend to happen on schedule. The small things, a new restaurant, a reopened storefront, tend to take years and show up looking smaller than originally planned. Both are happening in The Hammock this fall. Neither is going away.

If you're curious about what else is changing across Ocean Hammock and the broader Hammock Beach area this season, Karla Goodman keeps a close eye on the local details that don't always make it into the county agenda summaries. Whether you're a longtime resident tracking the next change on your street or you're simply curious about where the neighborhood is headed, reach out anytime. That kind of local read is what a boutique, single-agent brokerage is built for.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.