A New Neighborhood with Old-Florida Roots
Martinique at Abacoa may be one of Jupiter’s newer neighborhoods, but its story is connected to a much older local tradition: the town’s ability to welcome new ideas while preserving a strong sense of place.
Located in western Jupiter within the larger Abacoa master-planned community, Martinique is a residential neighborhood of single-family homes, townhomes, and custom residences. Its streets include Greenway Drive, Martinique Drive, Dakota Drive, Caravelle Drive, Saint Pierre Way, and Bellefontaine Lane. Today, the neighborhood is known for its colorful architecture, mature landscaping, sidewalks, and friendly, walkable atmosphere. Yet its identity was shaped by both the Caribbean and the long history of Jupiter itself.
Abacoa is a 2,055-acre mixed-use community designed around the principles of Traditional Neighborhood Development. Rather than separating homes, shops, parks, and civic spaces into distant districts, the plan brought them together through connected streets, sidewalks, public greens, and neighborhood centers.
Martinique became one of the communities that helped give Abacoa its distinct variety.
How Martinique Got Its Name
The neighborhood takes its name from Martinique, the French Caribbean island in the Lesser Antilles. The choice reflects the community’s architectural theme: a relaxed British West Indies and Caribbean style featuring bright colors, verandas, shutters, stucco, and compact streetscapes.
The name also fits the broader naming pattern within Abacoa. Nearby neighborhoods include Valencia, Tuscany, Antigua, and Mallory Creek, each suggesting a particular regional or cultural influence. Martinique Drive and the neighborhood’s street names reinforce that island-inspired character. Local real estate descriptions commonly identify the community as a Caribbean-style DiVosta neighborhood, with construction beginning around 2004 or 2005.
It is important to distinguish Martinique’s name from Jupiter’s own name. Jupiter was derived from the Native American place-name Jobe, which Spanish explorers recorded and English speakers later interpreted as Jove and then Jupiter. That older name belongs to the town as a whole; Martinique represents a much more recent design decision within modern Abacoa.
The Abacoa Connection
To understand Martinique, it helps to understand Abacoa’s origins. Planning for the community took shape in the 1990s, when local leaders and developers envisioned a large, mixed-use neighborhood that would feel more like a traditional town than a collection of isolated subdivisions. Construction began in the late 1990s, and the community expanded steadily during the early 2000s.
Martinique arrived during that period of rapid growth. DiVosta developed the neighborhood with a mixture of home types rather than a single uniform product. Some streets feature townhomes, while others include detached homes with front porches, small yards, and garages. Greenway Drive is particularly associated with larger custom-built residences, giving the neighborhood a range of architectural scale and character.
That variety is part of what makes Martinique feel different from a conventional subdivision. A morning walk may pass a two-story townhome, a colorful single-family residence, and a larger custom home within a few minutes. The neighborhood feels planned, but not entirely repetitive.
A Neighborhood Shaped by Jupiter’s Growth
Martinique’s development coincided with one of the most significant transformations in Jupiter’s modern history. For much of the twentieth century, Jupiter remained a relatively small coastal and river community defined by fishing, agriculture, citrus groves, the railroad, and family-owned businesses.
The town’s older heritage is visible in places such as the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, completed in 1860; the 1915 Florida East Coast Railway Depot; Sawfish Bay Park; and the historic buildings around Center Street and Old Dixie Highway. Jupiter Elementary School, built in 1927 on South Loxahatchee Drive, is another reminder of the era when the town was still compact and rural.
By the 1990s and early 2000s, Jupiter was growing beyond its historic core. New roads, schools, businesses, athletic facilities, and residential communities were needed to accommodate families moving into northern Palm Beach County. Abacoa—and Martinique within it—became part of that next chapter.
The neighborhood did not replace old Jupiter; instead, it extended the town westward. Residents could live in a newly built Caribbean-inspired home while remaining close to the Loxahatchee River, Jupiter’s beaches, historic downtown, and the traditional gathering places that long defined the community.
Streets, Parks, and Nearby Landmarks
Martinique’s internal streets are among its strongest defining features. Greenway Drive provides a central route through the neighborhood, while Martinique Drive serves as one of its recognizable entrances. The street names—Caravelle, Saint Pierre, Bellefontaine, and Dakota—create a sense of travel and place, even though the neighborhood itself is firmly rooted in Jupiter.
The surrounding Abacoa network is equally important. Sidewalks connect Martinique to nearby parks, schools, shops, and public spaces. Abacoa Town Center, with its restaurants, events, and open-air gathering areas, became one of the community’s most visible social centers. Roger Dean Stadium, located nearby, brought professional baseball and spring-training traditions into the area, adding a lively seasonal rhythm to the neighborhood.
For families, South Jupiter Community Park and other nearby recreational spaces provide room for playgrounds, sports, picnics, and outdoor gatherings. For longtime Jupiter residents, the appeal is also the easy access to older landmarks: the lighthouse and museum, Carlin Park, the riverfront, and the historic streets near Center Street.
How Martinique Has Evolved
Like much of Abacoa, Martinique has matured noticeably since its first homes were built. Young landscaping has grown into leafy canopies, porches have become gathering spots, and early residents have watched children grow up along the sidewalks. Homes have been updated, gardens personalized, and some remaining lots or custom residences developed over time.
The neighborhood’s social identity has evolved as well. The Abacoa Property Owners Association describes Martinique as a community where residents organize social gatherings, holiday celebrations, and local events. Those traditions are a modern expression of an older Jupiter habit: neighbors gathering around shared spaces, seasonal celebrations, schools, churches, and local institutions.
Today, Martinique is both established and youthful. Its houses are no longer brand-new, but the neighborhood still carries the energy of the early twenty-first-century growth that created it. Its Caribbean colors and architecture offer a visual contrast to Jupiter’s older Florida Vernacular homes, while its sidewalks and connected streets echo the town’s long-standing preference for community over isolation.
What Makes Martinique Special
Martinique’s heritage is not the heritage of a nineteenth-century settlement or a century-old district. It is the heritage of thoughtful modern planning—of creating a neighborhood that feels welcoming, distinctive, and connected to its surroundings.
Its name looks toward the Caribbean, its streets reflect an international design vocabulary, and its homes belong to the growth era that reshaped Jupiter after the 1990s. But its daily life remains distinctly local: neighbors walking dogs, children riding bikes, families gathering at parks, and residents heading into Abacoa Town Center or toward the river and beach.
That blend is Martinique’s lasting character. It is a newer neighborhood with a strong sense of belonging, a colorful corner of Abacoa that shows how Jupiter continues to grow without losing the warmth and community spirit that have always made the town special.