Palm Bay experienced enormous growth in the 1980s.  During the early 1990s, Palm Bay Regional Park, a large soccer and athletic complex in the Western part of the city, was constructed and then improved, and numerous other parks and recreational facilities were built throughout the city. The city continues its record growth due to its proximity to the ocean and the ready availability of year-round sporting facilities.

The recreational activities abound from the Indian River on the east to large regional parks on the west. It is a metropolitan area, adjacent with other municipalities on two of its borders and very progressive in terms of its economic development and other creative ways for delivering government services to the community.

The Timucuan Indians, attracted to the mouth of Turkey Creek at the Indian River by fresh water springs and plentiful fish, oysters, and wildlife, are thought to have been the first civilization in the Palm Bay area. Palm Bay's recent history began in the 1850's when the first white settlers, also drawn by the bounty and beauty of the area, built homes along Turkey Creek. Originally referred to as Tillman, the settlement was described as a "small strip of hammock...on each side of Turkey Creek...mostly pine and palmetto, miserable sandy barren oak scrub, some ponds and interspersed with sawgrass and gallberry."

In 1959, the Mackle brothers from Miami purchased land for a residential project now known as the Port Malabar subdivision.

That same year, Palm Bay's first modern industry arrived: Radiation, Inc., now Harris Corporation, moved from the Melbourne Airport property to its present Palm Bay facility on Palm Bay Road. The 1960s, punctuated with the turmoil of growth so typical of a "booming" community, were to be viewed later as the beginning of political maturity with the incorporation of the town as the City of Palm Bay in 1960.constructed in 1966.