SEBASTIAN — The former Sebastian fire station on US 1 could become a muscle car shop by the end of summer this year if the owner and developer can get the Sebastian City Council to sign off on the project as the city’s Planning and Zoning Board did Thursday night.
The board unanimously approved three recommendations to the council and passed the presented site plan changes for the .38-acre property located at 1640 US 1 on the north end of the city.
Developer Richard Peacock purchased the site in June at a public auction. His winning bid was $160,000. Now, he hopes to have the site open and ready for muscle car enthusiasts sometime by August or September.
“It’s the first good thing that’s happened,” Peacock said of the unanimous support from the Planning and Zoning Board. He said he hopes that level of support will continue with the Sebastian City Council.
The council could take up the board’s recommendations sometime in March at the earliest.
“It’s a dream,” Peacock’s son, Shane Peacock, said of moving the project forward. “It’s a huge ordeal taken off our shoulders.”
The Peacocks themselves are muscle car enthusiasts and have been stymied finding local businesses that tailor their work to such vehicles.
“There’s not much around Vero and Sebastian,” the elder Peacock said. Their business would change that, serving as a place for people to buy muscle cars and associated memorabilia.
No vehicle maintenance will be allowed and outdoor vehicle displays are limited to three vehicles in a less than 600-square-foot area fronting US 1.
The firehouse will be designed to invoke the feeling of an old time 1950s theatre, Peacock said. The bay doors will be glass rollups similar to classic gas stations. The color scheme will include yellows, blues and reds.
“It’s going to be the only place like it around,” Shane Peacock said.
