Upscale restaurants and shops proposed for vacant lot between downtown and Miracle Mile
STORY BY RAY MCNULTY (Week of June 17, 2021)
A vacant lot that covers a full city block – on the south side of eastbound State Road 60, east of the Vero Beach Police Department – is under contract to a buyer who wants to build a 12,000-square-foot commercial development featuring upscale restaurants and retail stores.
Billy Moss, a broker with Lambert Commercial Real Estate, said the sale of the 3.75-acre property, located between 9th and 10th avenues, is expected to be completed “in the next few weeks.”
Moss said he was not permitted to identify the buyer at this time, but the working name of the planned dining and shopping area is Vero Central Station, which would include two outparcels. The development would not include a hotel or big-box stores, Moss said.
“We’ve been working on this one for a while, and it’s going well, but we’re not there yet,” said Moss, a prominent commercial realtor who specializes in selling and leasing restaurants locally.
According to the Indian River County Property Appraiser’s Office website, the current owner of the parcel, which has a market value of $1.18 million, is TV 20 LLC.
The Florida Division of Corporations website lists Dillon Roberts – an attorney with the Gould Cooksey Fennell law firm in Vero Beach – as TV 20’s registered agent. He said he was not authorized to discuss the LLC or the transaction.
Vero Beach Planning and Development Director Jason Jeffries said he had not been contacted by the buyer or seen a conceptual plan for the property, but the parcel is currently zoned to accommodate restaurants and retail stores.
“The past couple of years, we’ve had other inquiries about changing the zoning to allow multi-family residential development there,” Jeffries said, “but nothing like this.”
The commercial development described by Moss would require at least 48 parking spaces, Jeffries said, and the site plan would need to be approved by the city’s Planning & Zoning Board.