Construction of a new, state-of-the-art electric substation is well underway at the southwest corner of Centennial Place across from the city wastewater treatment plant.
Florida Power & Light started building the facility at 1655 Indian River Blvd. in July and expects to have work completed by next June, according to FPL spokeswoman Marie Bertot.
Vero Beach Planning and Development Director Jason Jeffries said FPL is building on the 4.3-acre lot that property records show as city-owned as part of the deal struck between the power company and Vero when FPL purchased the city’s electric system in December 2018.
The new substation will replace the existing substation on the east side of Indian River Boulevard in front of the shuttered “Big Blue” power plant.
It will handle the same electrical load as the existing substation but will add to FPL’s system reliability, according to Bertot. “It will help with demand,” she said.
The corner parcel, often called the postal annex site, was originally developed as a warehouse for the city’s purchasing department, which was built in the early 1970s, Jeffries said.
In 1986, the city leased the building to the U.S. Postal Service as a letter carrier warehouse and distribution center.
The Postal Service moved out in 2004 after the building was damaged by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. The old warehouse/postal annex was demolished in 2007 and the site was vacant until this summer when FPL began its project.
The new substation is being built on the southern half of the 4.3-acre parcel, which leaves the prime corner section of the land available for future development, said Jeffries. The corner is zoned for commercial use and has been floated as a potential site for a new Vero Beach city hall. Under its C-1A zoning, the land could be used for any of the following: restricted retail sales and service, professional offices, financial institutions, government uses, hotels, medical services, multi-family residential and restaurants without drive-thrus, according to Jeffries.
The parcel, which is adjacent to the Rock Ridge subdivision, is bordered by the 17th Street Office Plaza to the west and the Bridgewater Office Complex to the south.
Earlier this summer, the Vero Beach City Council hired a consultant to help come up with a redevelopment plan for Centennial Place, city-owned land that includes the former postal annex site, and the sites of the electric and sewer plants. DPZ CoDesign, of Miami, was chosen to research options and garner public input on what to do with the property.
The electric plant is scheduled for demolition next year and the city plans to move the sewer plant inland in the coming years.
The resulting 30-plus acres of waterfront land will offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city to develop a riverfront complex that Vero now lacks, which could include a boutique hotel, shops, restaurants, docks and parkland.
The city council has discussed the possibility of building a new city hall on the remaining “postal annex” land as part of the overall development.
According to city staff, the current city hall may need more than $1 million worth of repairs and renovations to be viable for longterm future use.
Mayor Val Zudans said during the budget discussion where the need for extensive repairs and upgrades was revealed that the city could perhaps build a new, smaller city hall for less than the $1 million estimated price tag of renovation.
The city council decided to wait until DPZ CoDesign submits its overall Centennial Place redevelopment options to further consider building a new city hall at 17th Street and Indian River Boulevard.
A substation is an electrical facility that takes high voltage power from transmission lines and passes it through a series of transformers, each one decreasing the voltage until it gets to a low enough voltage to go out to the distribution lines that service neighborhoods.
Completion of the new FPL substation will clear the way to decommission the existing substation so that it can be demolished along with the electric plant, opening the city’s riverside land for redevelopment.
