Palm Bay Neighborhoods and Places Guide

City of Palm Bay records identify places by Port Malabar unit number, by quadrant (NE, NW, SE, SW) in street addresses, and by area names such as Country Club, Eldron, Garvey and Palm Bay Colony.

The city is large for Brevard County: approximately 98 square miles, the largest incorporated area in the county, reached from I-95 at exits 173 and 176 (Palm Bay directions page). Road projects show how the city itself labels its parts. The Palm Bay GO Roads page describes Country Club Units 1-10 as the neighborhoods off Port Malabar Blvd. between Palm Bay Road and Babcock Street, places Palo Alto and Eldron in the southeast quadrant, and refers to neighborhoods in the southwest quadrant west of Garvey to DeGroodt (Palm Bay GO Roads bond page).

City addresses carry the quadrant suffix: City Hall itself is listed as 120 Malabar Road SE (Palm Bay directions page). The Port Malabar guide explains how the unit numbers work, and the Bayside Lakes and The Compound guides cover the two named areas the city is most actively reviewing.

Palm Bay began as Tillman, a settlement of early homesteaders at the mouth of Turkey Creek founded in 1887, whose 200 residents petitioned to rename it Palm Bay in 1925.

The City of Palm Bay timeline continues from there: Palm Bay incorporated as a city in 1960 with 2,808 residents under Mayor Harry Pollak, and by 1990 it was the most populous city in Brevard County, with 62,632 residents (City of Palm Bay history page).

The city page gives no boundary for the old Tillman settlement beyond the mouth of Turkey Creek. The same timeline notes that in 2016 Palm Bay completed the southern portion of the St. Johns Heritage Parkway and announced a new I-95 interchange in south Palm Bay (Palm Bay history page).

Port Malabar is the name of numbered subdivision units in Palm Bay: the city identifies the Compound as Port Malabar Units 51, 52 and 53, and maps scrub jay habitat onto parcels in Port Malabar subdivisions.

Two city programs show how the Port Malabar units are used. Palm Bay paving under the $150 million GO Roads Bond, approved by voters in November 2018, has been scheduled by numbered unit, with Units 31 and 32, Unit 41 and Unit 42 among those named, and the city lists Port Malabar among the areas where it has completed over 418 miles of road improvements (Palm Bay GO Roads bond page). The scrub jay program maps Florida scrub jay habitat onto parcels in Port Malabar subdivisions in the southeast section of Palm Bay; since April 23, 2007 those lots can get building permits for an extra $125 per quarter acre, with restrictions on clearing between March 1 and June 30 (Palm Bay Scrub Jay Lots page).

One caution on the Palm Bay GO Roads page: its status lines say work is expected to finish later this month and that bids are due back February 18, without naming the year, so the page cannot be read as a current schedule as of October 15, 2026. The Port Malabar guide covers the units, the legal descriptions and the scrub jay lots in more depth.

The Compound is the name the city uses for Port Malabar Units 51, 52 and 53 in southwest Palm Bay, 4,978 mostly quarter-acre lots with about 200 miles of roads but no water, sewer or electric service.

General Development Corporation began the Compound in the 1980s, and when it went bankrupt in 1991 development stalled and the land was liquidated (Palm Bay Compound update page). The City of Palm Bay counts 2,755 unique private owners across the world, owns the paved roads, and notes that the entire area lies in a flood zone. The Palm Bay City Council adopted the Compound Existing Land Use Analysis, prepared by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, on April 4, 2024.

Two federal efforts now cover the Compound. An EPA Region 4 technical assistance study, valued at $100,000 with no city match, began in November 2024 on Port Malabar Unit 53, and the city page now posts the Compound Redevelopment Action Plan (April 2025). Separately, the regional planning council received a $1.5 million Brownfields Assessment Grant, announced in May 2024, that names the Compound as a priority site (Palm Bay Compound update page).

Readers comparing Palm Bay figures should know the city page gives two different sizes for the Compound in its visible text: approximately 2,492 acres in its brownfields section and approximately 2,942 acres in its history section, which puts city ownership at 278.4 acres. The Compound guide explains the figures and the redevelopment plan in full.

The City of Palm Bay is reviewing Eden at Bayside Lakes, a proposed 460-unit master-planned community on the former Majors Golf Course, and as of October 15, 2026 its land use and preliminary plan applications are in 4th review.

Joy LLC, owner of the site since 2019, seeks a future land use change from Rural Single Family to Neighborhood Center and Low Density Residential (case CP24-00008) and a preliminary development plan for a planned unit development (case PD24-00001), both submitted March 12, 2026 (Palm Bay Eden at Bayside Lakes page). The final development plan, FD24-00002, is on hold until the Palm Bay City Council approves the preliminary plan. Because the project was filed before the updated Land Development Code was adopted in September 2024, the city is reviewing it under the previous code.

The city returns comments within 30 days of each submission but there is no set timeline for the applicant to respond, and the page lists no hearing date. The Bayside Lakes guide covers the neighborhood, the earlier Majors plan and nearby road work.

The three Palm Bay places guides each answer one set of questions; the table pairs them with the key city fact, and sends the founding question to the history section.

Every Palm Bay places guide is linked in the related content list below this answer. Facts in the table come from the Palm Bay Compound update page (link), the Eden at Bayside Lakes page (link) and the Scrub Jay Lots page (link).