More new development is coming to the busy stretch of U.S. 1 between 20th Street, where the highway crosses Route 60, and 8th Street a mile and a half south.
Five years ago, the stretch was shabby and dated – not a great advertisement for the quality of life in Vero Beach. In the years since, though, it’s been a hotbed of redevelopment, starting with the big, beautiful Cumberland convenience store and gas station at 17th Street, which opened in 2016.
Since then, a Walmart Neighborhood Market, a Wawa store, and more than a dozen other new restaurants and retail outlets have opened along the highway, most on sites where dated buildings were torn down and modern structures erected by both local and out-of-town developers who see big potential in the area.
In the works now are a new Verizon store going up on a lot at 15th Place, next door to Waves Auto Spa, where a worn-out gas station was torn down; a veterinary clinic on the site of a shuttered TV repair shop next to the building that housed the Press Journal newspaper before the publication faltered and lost most of its Vero Beach subscribers; a new adult arcade that will occupy the former Cindi’s Pet Center site; and – most notably – a new retail plaza coming soon along the highway at the front of the K-Mart Plaza parking lot.
Developer and plaza owner Michael Rechter of Integra Real Estate is finalizing plans to relocate the stormwater retention pond north of Checkers restaurant to make way for two 4,500-square-foot buildings to become a new retail and restaurant plaza.
Rechter said the plaza is about a month out from getting final approvals and he expects construction to start by late summer. It will have a courtyard in the center flanked by two restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating.
Remaining space will be available for other commercial or retail uses, with five or six businesses total, according to Rechter, who hopes to see the plaza occupied and open by the summer of 2021.
“U.S. 1 is coming along,” he said of all the current and planned development along the corridor. “I like new construction. It’s very positive for the area.”
Meanwhile, on the east side of the highway, across from the new plaza location, the shell of the Verizon store is nearing completion and the business is slated to open later this year.
The developer of “Lin’s Arcade” at 8th Street has leased the former pet store property and is in the planning and permitting process.
Jason Jeffries, Vero Beach planning and development director, noted that the proposed veterinary facility doesn’t have an approved site plan yet, but is working through the rezoning process.
The developer is combining several parcels that front U.S. 1 with land set back to the west. Rezoning is necessary for the parcels off U.S. 1 to allow for stormwater features needed to meet site development standards, according to Jeffries.
“It takes more land than it used to” under the current standards for a development of this type, he said.
Billy Moss with Lambert Commercial Real Estate says additional new development will be coming to the busy 1.5-mile stretch of U.S. 1. and expects to announce additional projects in the future.
“A lot of people are looking,” said Moss, who sees the 2017 opening of Wawa as the turning point for the area.
Wawa is the “homecoming queen” of national development, Moss said, explaining that – like Starbucks in its heyday – where Wawa goes, other businesses follow.
The Green Marlin restaurant, which moved into where Outback Steakhouse was a few years ago, is thriving, he said, another sign that business is doing well for those on U.S. 1.
“Things are cooking,” he said, adding that “it’s not fully baked, but it’s hot.”
“I’m excited to see everything that is coming,” Moss said.