The landmark Transocean Office Center at A1A and 17th Street on the barrier island has changed hands for the first time in 34 years.

Longtime owner and Moorings resident Paula Delaplane sold the 35,000-square-foot office building to PMD Capital Management for $8.5 million, closing on July 1, according to Mike Yurocko, with SLC Commercial Realty Associates, who brokered the deal.

The handsome, three-story building at 1701 S. Highway A1A sits on 2.6 acres and was fully leased at the time of the sale.

Delaplane, who spends about eight months a year in Vero and four in Southern California, is winding down the commercial real estate business founded by her husband in California many years ago.

“It was a personal decision mainly driven by wanting to spend more time with my family,” says Delaplane, who previously sold off the company’s California properties.

“We didn’t put it on Loopnet or other sites,” says Yurocko. “Instead, I put out a call for qualified investors. I already had a verbal offer from a wealthy person in Vero, but we couldn’t agree on a number.”

“I have a good relationship with SLC Commercial and I got the call,” says Max Ducharme, founder and managing partner of Jupiter-based PMD Capital.

“Many of my investors live on the barrier island, in Windsor and other neighborhoods, and we have been looking for something in Vero for a while,” Ducharme says. “Paula did a fantastic job managing and maintaining the property, and this is exactly the type of high-quality office asset we seek to own. We are excited to establish a long-term presence in Indian River County.”

Delaplane put a new roof on the Mediterranean-style building in 2025, and the lobby was recently remodeled with high-end finishes, including Venetian plaster.

“Absolutely nothing needs to be done to the building,” says Yurocko.

Ducharme, a Montreal native with a wide-ranging background in business and investment, typically scoops up properties that can be improved or repositioned and made more valuable.

He made an exception for the island building.

“Once he saw it, he wanted it,” says Yurocko.

“This is not as ‘value-add’ as our other assets,” Ducharme told Vero Beach 32963. “It is more of a supply and demand story. There are meaningful limitations to the future supply of office space on the island and I see an increase in demand in coming years. We feel very good about the direction of the Vero Beach market over a 10-year horizon.

“This building – and property in Vero generally – feels like a very good value to us, especially relative to prices in West Palm Beach and other areas to the south.”

Ducharme does not plan to expand the building or change its name but will likely add some value by raising lease rates when leases renew.

“Current rates in the building are in the high $20s to $30 per square foot and the market will bear more than that,” says Yurocko. “The buyer can probably go to $35 per square foot with no problem.”

At that rate, the building will gross well over $1 million annually. After taxes and maintenance, Ducharme and his group should easily recoup their investment in 10 years or less, while still possessing a very valuable building.

“We plan to operate it as a premier asset, long-term, building on Paula’s legacy by continuing to provide outstanding service to the tenants,” Ducharme says.

The shell of the building was built in 1990 by a Vero Beach developer who ran into difficulties and lost the property to his lender, Barnett Bank of Treasure Coast, which was acquired by another bank in 1998 and eventually merged into Bank of America.

The half-finished building caught the eye of Earnest Delaplane in 1992, according to Paula.

Earnest was a classic Southern California success story, who arrived in the Golden State “a dirt-poor farm boy,” in Paula’s words, and ended up an airline pilot, real estate brokerage owner and property mogul.

“We had office buildings, industrial buildings and several trailer parks,” Paula says. “We were plenty busy, but when we came to Vero to visit friends who had retired here, Earnest noticed the building and found it an appealing proposition.

“It was a rare find and he wanted to build it out and finish it with the quality and character it deserved to match its excellent location. He decided he could handle it on top of everything else we were doing.”

The Delaplanes bought the property from Barnett Bank in 1992, paying $1,750,000, according to county records. The first tenants signed leases in 1993.

The Delaplanes became bicoastal in 1995, buying a home in The Anchor at The Moorings, where Paula is a member of The Moorings Yacht & Country Club. Earnest passed away in 2008. Paula still splits her time between Vero Beach and a home in Santa Clarita, California.

Paula lightened her workload in 2014 by hiring Yurocko to handle leasing at the Transocean Office Center.

“Mike has been a big help,” Paula says. “We have many excellent, long-term tenants who have built their businesses in the building. In general, people have been happy there, and we have been happy to provide the quality and consistency tenants appreciate.”

Ducharme, who has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, previously was senior vice president of the Falcon Group in Boca Raton, “a national real estate development and investment firm that has developed and acquired more than 30,000 multifamily apartments, 15 million square feet of commercial space, and 30,000 single-family homes throughout the country,” according to its profile on RocketReach, a business information hub.

He’s also worked in mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategic planning, as well as urban master planning and suburban development.

He founded PMD Capital Management in 2024 and has since become the largest landlord in Stuart’s historic downtown and the largest industrial landlord in Cape Canaveral. The Transocean Office Center was his fourth deal so far this year, and he is actively looking for additional off-market deals in Vero Beach, including individual properties and portfolios.

“Anyone who has a proposal should contact me,” he says.

Paula Delaplane still owns and manages an industrial park and storage facility at 190 Old Dixie Highway.

“That is my last property,” she says. “I am semi-retired now but not entirely on the shelf!”