How many local shoppers, diners and bar-goers would utilize a trolley-like shuttle that connected Vero Beach’s downtown to Ocean Drive and the Miracle Mile/Royal Palm Pointe area, circling the city’s most popular business districts on an hourly basis Thursday through Saturday nights?
Are there enough people who might want to shop in one of those areas, dine in another and have drinks in yet another – or partake in some combination of the three – without driving from place to place?
Would such a service bring more customers to the Miracle Mile/Royal Palm Pointe area, particularly during the evening hours?
Local real estate investor and hotel developer Keith Kite, co-owner of the Hampton Inn & Suites at Miracle Mile, would like to find out. To that end, he has been discussing the possibility of a shuttle with Dane Marckel, CEO of Magic Carpet Ride, which operates a 24-seat trolley.
“We’re still very early in the planning process,” Marckel said. “One of the big questions we need to answer is: If we’re going to do something like this, who’s going to pay for it?”
That’s another part of Kite’s plan.
He wants to form an association between proprietors at Miracle Mile and nearby Royal Palm Pointe – a partnership that would enable the two areas to jointly promote events that would attract people to their restaurants, bars and shops.
Kite mentioned “Jazz at the Pointe” and “Music on the Mile” nights as possibilities, citing the successes of Downtown Friday on the mainland and Sunset Saturday Night on the island.
“A lot of people are going downtown and to Ocean Drive,” Kite said. “We need to do something to make Miracle Mile and a Royal Palm Pointe more of a destination.”
Kite said the wildly successful Florida Craft Brew and Wingfest, held at Royal Palm Pointe for the past five years, is proof of the area’s potential.
If he can convince Miracle Mile and Royal Palm Pointe businesses to work together, Kite then hopes to forge an alliance with Main Street Vero Beach and the Oceanside Business Association.
Developing a synergy among the city’s dining and shopping districts, he said, would benefit everyone involved – especially if the three-way alliance funded a shuttle that allowed more convenient access to each of them.
Both Kite and Marckel said they would not seek tax dollars to fund the shuttle, which, painted all white, lends itself to advertising from local businesses.
“It’s a way of connecting the town and giving people an opportunity to go to different places without getting into their cars,” Kite said, adding that the shuttle could begin making test runs as soon as this winter.
Tim McGarry, the city’s planning and development director, said Kite often pitches new ideas designed to improve Miracle Mile, and he welcomes them.
As for the possibility of running a privately funded shuttle to connect downtown, Ocean Drive and the Miracle Mile/Royal Palm Pointe area, McGarry said Kite is welcome to try. But he doesn’t know if the demand is there in a community where people tend to prefer driving themselves.
“It all sounds nice,” McGarry said, “but there’s still the question of whether people will use it.”
Marckel said the shuttle would provide a safe option for people whose nights out include drinking adult beverages, particularly those who live on the mainland and imbibe on the island.
“I’m sure there are a lot of people who would rather not drive across the bridge after they’ve had a couple,” he said. “With the shuttle, they’d have another choice.”
