VERO BEACH — After years of planning and community input, the City of Vero Beach is officially moving forward with negotiations to redevelop its 38-acre Three Corners property, a project that city leaders say will transform one of Florida’s most valuable pieces of publicly owned waterfront.
Vero Beach City Manager Monte Falls shared the update during the latest city council meeting, marking a significant milestone in the city’s efforts to redevelop the former power plant site.
“It gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to do this here today, to remind everybody we started six years ago this month, November of 2019, where we engaged DPZ to take us through the process, come up with a plan,” Falls said. “We had a great plan, presented it to the community in January of 2019, and we all referred to that as the Standing Ovation Plan.”
The nearly $250 million project will transform the long-vacant site, formerly home to the “Big Blue” power plant, into a mixed-use waterfront village with hotels, restaurants, shops, green spaces, event venues, and a marina.
“So here we are today with what I think is a great opportunity for the city,” Falls said. “The team that we have selected has gotten better since we made the selection, in my opinion.”
The City Council voted in December 2024 to select ClearPath Services as the project’s lead developer. The company has since partnered with the Blue Team to advance the project.
Randy Lloyd, president of ClearPath, said the partnership has strengthened the proposal.
“We’ve come a long way and put in a lot of effort to come together to have a joint group to, I think, better the project and better the proposal,” Lloyd said. “And we’ve worked hard with PFM and offer the submission to get to this point. And we are, I think I can speak for all of us, excited to begin our negotiations and move this thing forward.”
Falls outlined the city’s next steps now that the council has given approval to begin talks.
“Once council gives us a thumbs up, we’re going to sit down with them, and we’ll have our team, which will consist of the city attorney, Peter Polk, our project manager, Jay Glover with PFM, our financial consultant, Jason Jeffries, and an outside counsel that you’re all familiar with, Tom Cloud,” Falls said. “I’ll be on that as well, and then we’ll sit down and start putting together an agreement that we can bring back to council.”
Negotiations are expected to take around four months, though extensions may be granted if needed.
“I believe we allowed 120 days through the process,” Falls said. “Hopefully that we can do there. If not, we’ve got some extension capabilities, but we’ll do it as quickly and concisely as we can. But again, we want to bring something that everybody’s comfortable with. So when we hit the ground, everybody can realize their expectations.”
The Three Corners site, located at Indian River Boulevard and 17th Street, is being hailed by city leaders as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a new waterfront destination for residents and visitors. The city’s master plan calls for a balance of commercial and public uses, including park areas, cultural and recreational amenities, and open waterfront access.
The city plans to lease the land under a long-term ground lease agreement with the selected developer, ensuring the project remains self-sustaining and generates ongoing revenue for improvements and maintenance.
For Vero Beach, the step toward negotiation marks the beginning of the final phase in a process that began with community workshops, design charrettes, and years of public input.