Indigo Vero Beach, the ultra-luxury oceanfront development on the south side of Tracking Station Park, has just been relaunched with a new development and sales team. Luke Webb, whose brokerage has been tapped to sell out the remaining units, held a well-attended afternoon event on Feb. 26 to stir up interest and remind island brokers and buyers of the project’s virtues. Launched in 2020 by Coastmark Companies, developer of Blue at 8050 and other high-end island projects, the villa and condominium community got off to a strong start with multiple sales. Originally laid out with six condominiums in a single building, 10 oceanfront villas, and five ocean-view villas, the plan was modified to eliminate three oceanfront villas and add a second condominium building. That was due to strong demand for the 3,000-plus-square-foot condo units with expansive terraces overlooking the Atlantic. Work progressed apace on the remaining seven oceanfront villas, which are nearly complete and have all been sold, but the condominium buildings got bogged down at some point by supply chain issues in the aftermath of the pandemic disruption. The original development team included Yane Zana, head of Coastmark, a silent partner/financier who lives in Vero Beach, and Realty Capital Partners, a multibillion-dollar Dallas real estate investment and management firm. As delays continued and some buyers with contingencies backed out of their purchases, Realty Capital Partners felt pressure to complete the project and negotiated a buyout/takeover of the development. “We put in additional capital and brought in new manpower,” says Blake Lugash, CEO of Realty Capital Partners, who’s now also president of Indigo Vero Beach. “We are intently focused on finishing the remaining condos and villas, getting our homeowners into their homes, and bringing this beautiful project to completion.” Lugash brought in Indianapolis-based WDG Construction Group in August to speed up the building process. He says they have made significant progress in the last seven months. “It’s full steam ahead,” he says. “The ocean-view villas will be complete in 60 to 90 days and people will be moving into the north condominium building about the same time.” Besides a new sense of energy at the development, Webb has the advantage of a rare and coveted commodity as he looks to ramp up sales at Indigo. The gated community offers brand-new seaside residences with high design, luxury finishes, spectacular ocean views – and no insurance worries. Eight of the 24 homes in Indigo are still available, including three ocean-view villas starting at $3 million and five condo units that range in price from $3,495,000 to $5,295,000. The 3-bedroom, 4.5-bath, 3-story ocean-view villas have almost 3,000 square feet of air-conditioned living space, along with another 1,300 square feet under roof, including garage space and covered terraces. The villas have 2-car garages, large flex rooms, swimming pools and patios on the first level; a sprawling owner’s suite with a terrace and a guest bedroom on the second level; and living room, dining room, chef’s kitchen, a third bedroom, and another large terrace on the third level. Above that is an amazing 26-foot by 22-foot, tiled, rooftop terrace with a bar area and vast ocean views. Finished staircases and an elevator connect all four levels. There are six condos in both condo buildings, two on each floor. The north tower is sold out, while five units remain in the south tower. The south-tower units, which are available on three floors with ascending prices, have between 3,000 and 3,400 square feet of air-conditioned space, plus huge, 31-foot by 30-foot, wraparound terraces and ultra-luxe fittings and finishes. The units have 10-foot ceilings, 20- to 25-feet wide, floor-to-ceiling, sliding-door, glass walls opening to the oceanfront terraces, Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, marble kitchen counters, elevators that open into private vestibules, multiple garage spaces and air-conditioned, first-floor storage space. With parking and storage rooms on the first floor of the 4-story buildings, second floor units have unobstructed ocean views, which get wider on the third and fourth floors. Webb says about 70 brokers and potential buyers showed up at his “re-launch soiree,” which was hosted by seven members of his team plus RCP executives. The 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. event catered by Wild Thyme resulted in 14 buyer leads and one sale so far, according to Webb. “We wrote a contract on the north penthouse unit on Friday,” he told Vero Beach 32963 on Monday. The sale was to a buyer who already purchased a north tower condo and is doubling down on Indigo. The project site is exceptional, with more than 500 linear feet of ocean frontage on a wide, quiet beach, and the close-to-town location is another strong positive, according to island realtors. Indigo is only a mile and half from Vero’s seaside shopping, dining and cultural district and even closer to the Village Shops in Indian River Shores. The 4-acre upland parcel has some history behind it. Originally part of a naval tracking station established to watch for German submarines in WWII, it later served as an Air Force radar site. In 1980, the Air Force decommissioned the property and leased it to Florida Institute of Technology, which established an internationally known marine research center on the site. When its 30-year lease expired in 2010, FIT bought the property and soon announced plans for a new $10 million building and expanded research facilities. But the lab’s supervising professor died and the university’s efforts to attract support for the expansion from island donors fizzled. The lab went dark in 2016, and in 2017 the county offered FIT $1.5 million for the property, with the idea of expanding Tracking Station beach park. That deal, however, did not go through. In 2019, FIT successfully petitioned the city of Vero Beach to annex the unincorporated property, adding to the value of the land. That successful effort was initiated by Zana, who put the annexed property under contract in September 2019 and closed on the deal in April 2020, paying $6 million for the tract. Almost immediately, other developers swooped in seeking to buy the property, offering to pay as much as $14 million, according to Zana. The city zoned the parcel C1-A, which allows a wide range of uses. Zana said at the time that one developer proposed a 140-room hotel while others wanted to max the site out with luxury apartments or condos. In the end, despite the lure of a quick and dramatic profit, Zana and his silent partner decided to develop the property themselves, though they did bring in RCP as a financial participant. That connection came about because RCP founder Richard Myers and Zana’s silent partner were old friends from business school. “When we saw the project was in Vero Beach, we knew it was something super special,” says Lugash. “We invest in quality projects that benefit the community and we stand by what we invest in. It was great to see Luke’s relaunch event, and we are excited to get Indigo Vero Beach completed.” Owners will be moving into the oceanfront villas by mid-May, according to Lugash, with residents taking possession of condos in the sold-out north tower a few weeks later. “We expect the project to be completed in its entirety by the end of the year,” he says. <em>Photos by Joshua Kodis</em> [gallery ids="229834,229835,229836"]