A large luxury apartment and townhome development called The Griffon is getting underway on Route 60 west of 74th Avenue. The 49-acre site at 7700 20th St. next to Indian River Estates has been cleared and infrastructure is going in for a 297-unit community.
The Griffon is being developed by Crest Residential, a large multifamily development and investment company based in Birmingham, Alabama, and built by Proctor Construction, which is listed on county paperwork as prime contractor.
Crest principal Matt Benak told Multifamilybiz.com, “Our team is excited to fill a void for upscale multifamily housing in the Vero Beach community with The Griffon. We’ve thoughtfully designed a development authentic to Vero with unmatched amenities that meets the need of the underserved Vero Beach market for a true luxury rental option.”
The Griffon will be a “West Indies-style community offering 13 floor plans from 553 square feet to 1,909 square feet with 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom apartments, as well as carriage houses and townhomes,” according Multifamilybiz.com. “Each unit will feature granite countertops, designer lighting, stainless steel appliances, oversized bedrooms, double sinks, walk-in showers, walk-in closets and attached and detached garage options.”’
The community’s planned “superior amenities” include a resort-style, salt-water pool, outdoor entertainment and dining, a car wash station, and bicycle storage. A spacious clubhouse will offer a 24-hour fitness center, yoga studio, business center, private resident conference room, lounge and coffee bar. Residents’ pets will have their own fenced play area and spa.
Indian River County Community Development Director Phil Matson said of the project: “We welcome it. It will be very well done.”
Matson pointed out that, while the county has a substantial number of “affordable housing” rental developments, the only other recent market-rate rental development is The Reserve, which opened in 2020 on the south side of Route 60, behind Olive Garden and Outback Steakhouse, across from Indian River Square.
Matson said The Reserve has been “very successful, and now we’ll see more development coming,” noting that the West Vero Corridor along Route 60 is nowhere near build-out. There remain hundreds of acres of undeveloped land – as much as 60 percent of the roadside property – still available for development.
He said construction along the corridor has seen an “uptick” recently “but it’s not going crazy, nothing like [what we see in] other counties.”
At least some nearby residents are supportive of The Griffon development, according to Matson. When residents of the small neighboring community to the west of the project were asked what they thought of having the apartment complex as a neighbor, “the consensus was that they would far rather have the upscale development, particularly with its planned 300-foot buffer, than be crowded by single-family residences with a far narrower buffer.”
Crest Residential focuses “on ground-up development and acquisition opportunities,” according to the company website. It has completed “projects throughout the southeast and Texas, including similar communities in St. Augustine and New Smyrna and one ‘in development’ in Destin, for a combined history of more than 6,300 units and a total investment of $800 million.”
When Crest announced The Griffon project in September pre-leasing was expected to begin the third quarter of 2022.