Ken Puttick is exasperated.
He’s 71 years old, not in the best of health, and he has grown weary of the aggravation that’s accompanied each of his four attempts to develop the 7-acre parcel of vacant land he owns a half-mile east of the Wabasso causeway at the southeast corner of the Town of Orchid.
The latest blow was delivered last week, when, confronted by overwhelming opposition from Orchid residents and their neighbors, Publix announced it was cancelling its contract to buy Puttick’s property and abandoning its plan to build a supermarket-anchored shopping center in the town.
“I have a lot of money tied up in this property, and I still want to do something with it,” Puttick, a longtime Vero Beach-area businessman, said last weekend as he again mulled his options, which seem to be dwindling. “I’m not looking to leave it to my kids. That’s not why I bought it.
“But I’ve been trying for more than 12 years, and I’m getting tired of banging my head against a wall. If the town won’t let me do anything with the land, then maybe they should buy it.”
Puttick has proposed four projects – one residential, one commercial and two that best could be described as a combination of both – since purchasing the land for $3.5 million in May 2006. Each time, his plan has gone down in flames.
Puttick has grown so weary of being turned away, in fact, that he might not try again, even though he said he was exploring other potential proposals for the property – which is Orchid’s last remaining parcel zoned for commercial development.
He now questions whether the restrictions in the town’s building code are too prohibitive to allow any commercial venture to be financially viable on that parcel, especially after absorbing the costs of purchasing the property, construction and the installation of the necessary infrastructure and landscaping.
“Any commercial venture is going to require at least some variances or waivers,” Puttick said. “No business can survive with how the code is written.”
He believes that’s exactly what Orchid wants, and he’s seriously considering taking the town to court to challenge its code under the “Bert Harris Private Property Rights Protection Act,” passed by the Florida Legislature in 1995.
The law states that property owners may seek relief from the courts if they can prove a governmental entity has directly and unreasonably restricted – and placed an unfair burden on – a property’s use, thus preventing the owner from “obtaining the reasonable, investment-backed expectation” from the property.
In this case: Puttick, who lives in the town, could claim that the restrictions in Orchid’s code are so unreasonably prohibitive that they have unfairly prevented him from using the property in a way that allows him to get any reasonable return on his investment.
But he’d rather not sue.
“It’s a possibility – and I may ultimately decide that the town has left me no other option – but I’d rather not go to court,” Puttick said. “I’ve lived in Vero Beach for over 30 years and I’ve done a lot of business here, but I haven’t sued many people. I don’t like controversy, and I try to avoid it when I can.
“So suing the town would be a last resort,” he added. “I don’t want to do it. I’d rather find a way to work things out. But if that’s not going to happen, I have to do something.
“I can’t walk away and do nothing.”
Puttick said he has more than $6 million invested in the property, an amount that includes the purchase price; the costs of engineers, architects and attorneys; and money paid in interest, taxes and for insurance.
He said the property has been appraised at $7.5 million, but, if Orchid wants to buy it, he’d sell it to the town for a “reasonable” price.
“The land is worth a lot more than it was when I bought it, but they could take me out of this, easily, using tax-free municipal bonds,” Puttick said. “Or they could put 50 percent down and finance the rest. I’ll even be the bank and give them a fair rate.
“I’m trying to be reasonable.”
Thus far, he said, the town has shown no interest in buying the land. And, really, there’s currently little incentive for Orchid to spend the millions of dollars for the property.
But Puttick remains hopeful he and the town can reach a compromise that will keep them out of court.
“It’s pretty obvious they don’t want commercial development there,” he said, “so why not change the zoning to residential and let me develop it into something nice – like I wanted to do before?”
If Orchid officials were willing to make such an accommodation, Puttick said he would not “go back at them” and sue the town for killing his previous proposals, which were rejected because the zoning didn’t allow for residential development.
“I’ll put that in writing and sign it,” he said. “This has gone on too long.”
It was in 2007 that Puttick made his first pitch to the town, submitting a plan to build golf cottages on the northern half of the property and use the southern half for commercial development – a proposal he claims was in accordance with the mixed-use plan town residents favored when Windsor owned the land.
“I didn’t request a zoning change before I bought it, because my plan was an exact duplicate of Windsor’s plan,” he said. “I didn’t think there’d be any problem. Then, when I went through the approval process, they turned me down. I was mystified.”
Puttick tried again in 2011, proposing a development of 40 two-story, courtyard townhomes with two-car garages, but the town refused his request to rezone the property from commercial to residential.
“They told me they wanted commercial development on that property,” he said.
So, four years later, Puttick returned with a proposal to build an upscale, 120-bed, assisted-living facility that would employ 60 people. He argued the plan met the town’s requirements for commercial zoning, which includes a “Medical Services” category, and Orchid’s Local Planning Agency voted 4-1 to approve it.
However, the town manager told Puttick the code didn’t specifically list adult assisted-living facilities as a permitted – or even conditional – use in the commercial zoning district, and the town council rejected his proposal, ruling that such a facility was primarily residential.
Puttick sued and lost.
“The town made the wrong decision, but they did it in a legal manner,” Puttick said. “I still don’t know how they could say an assisted living facility isn’t a commercial venture.”
Last year, Publix signed a contract to buy Puttick’s parcel – a purchase contingent on the company getting the town’s approval to build a 31,000-square-foot supermarket and 6,000-square-foot, five-store retail building.
This time, Puttick stayed out of the process.
“I had three shots at it and came away with nothing,” he said. “I didn’t want to mess up this one.”
The proposal, though, never had a chance: Shortly after Publix representatives made their initial presentation to the town council last spring, residents in neighboring communities began expressing fierce opposition.
Then, after Publix representatives made an updated presentation to Orchid residents in January, the Orchid Island Community Association conducted a digital survey that revealed 87 percent of the town’s homeowners were opposed to the company’s plan.
It didn’t matter than Publix possessed the financial wherewithal to cover the start-up costs and was willing to tweak its plans to please the town.
There was no way the town council, after seeing the survey’s results, would’ve granted the requested waivers to the code, which restricts the size, height and roofing of commercial buildings; the size of commercial signage; and the hours and days businesses may operate. Publix needed the waivers to proceed with the project.
“Publix bent over backward to try to make it work here – to make it viable for them and acceptable to the town,” Puttick said. “They would’ve been a good neighbor.
“But once that survey came out, I knew Publix would pull the plug,” he added. “They saw the opposition, and they didn’t want to be the bad guy.”
Nor does Puttick.
He said he plans to call Orchid Mayor Harold Ofstie in the next few days to discuss the future of the property and seek guidance as to what type of development the town would find palatable.
“I’m going to ask him: What do you want me to do with it now?” Puttick said. “I want to know what the town will accept, or if the town wants to buy the property from me.”
Jason Keen, chief operating officer of the Village Beach Market, has publicly expressed interest in buying the parcel and putting a store there. However, Puttick said there has been no communication between the parties since his realtor contacted Keen two weeks ago.
“I don’t have anything set in stone with anyone right now,” Puttick said, “but I’m open to anything that’s realistic.”
What’s realistic?
“That,” he said, “is a good question.”
