INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River Board of County Commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday in a special call meeting to offer the City of Vero Beach $2.4 million for a 35-acre parcel adjacent to the county’s existing Holman Stadium and Historic Dodgertown complex.
County Administrator Jason Brown said of the purchase by the county, if accepted Tuesday evening by the Vero Beach City Council, “It makes Historic Dodgertown whole,” adding that there is an “inherent benefit” to retaining the property for public use, recreation, green space and potentially stormwater retention.
The vote was handled in two parts. Commissioners Tim Zorc and Bob Solari voted against the proposal to outbid a private investor who had offered $2.1 million with plans to build an “urban market” shopping and dining facility plus high-end office space on the site, a portion of which the county now uses for overflow parking when Dodgertown hosts large events and concerts. Zorc had voted to purchase the property, but then changed his position to a nay when it came to paying more than a matching price. Solari voted no on both questions.
Commissioners opted to offer $300,000 more than the developer partially to head off a bidding war, and partially because Vero would have to forego anticipated ad valorem taxes from the urban market and office building should the city sell the parcel to the county, because the county is tax-exempt.
County staff at the beginning of the two-hour meeting recommended buying only half the property, and letting the other half be sold for development, and the discussion went back and forth on that idea until Commissioner Susan Adams said she would not vote for the purchase unless the county invested in the whole parcel.
“Either purchase all of it or purchase none of it,” she said. Adams also questioned the plan to use only one funding source from Tourist Development or bed tax revenues as it would limit what the county can do with the land. A blended funding source of bed tax and optional one-cent sales tax was found to be the solution.
Chairman Peter O’Bryan said he would accompany County Administrator Jason Brown to the Vero Beach City Council meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. to pitch the county’s offer. On the agenda for that meeting is a contract for the sale of the property to the developer for $2.1 million.
