Some Vero Beach-area residents might’ve found it ironic last week that the first visible sign of progress at the Three Corners site occurred on the parcel south of the 17th Street bridge – not the north side, where the city hopes to develop a dining, retail, social and recreational hub on the mainland’s waterfront.
But not Stu Keiller.
Project manager for the local Youth Sailing Foundation, Keiller was thrilled to see one of the tanks at the city’s wastewater treatment plant reduced to rubble.
“It was a very memorable day,” Keiller said after watching the Dec. 1 demolition, which cleared the site for the construction of the foundation’s 10,000-square-foot sailing center, surrounded by a lagoon-side park with boat ramps, a pier and pavilions for educational and recreational use.
“We’ve been looking at this project since 2019, when the city first started talking about doing something at the Three Corners site,” he added. “We’ve done the planning, fundraising and design work. Now, we can finally move forward with construction.”
Construction of the sailing center couldn’t begin until the reclaimed-water storage tank came down because the new sailing center will be built on roughly the same footprint – and the tank couldn’t be demolished until the city’s irrigation pipeline to John’s Island was operational.
Vero Beach Water-Sewer Director Rob Bolton said the John’s Island pipeline “went online” on Dec. 1, though his staff is still conducting tests.
“We ran some water through during Thanksgiving week, and we’re operational now, but we still need to install a control valve, which we’ll get done by Jan. 1,” Bolton said.
“Right now, we’re running the system only during the day,” he added, “but we expect to have a fully automated operation in March.”
The long-awaited $13.5 million pipeline, pump and treatment system was more than a dozen years in the making. At full capacity, the pipeline is designed to bring 3 million gallons – roughly 400,00 cubic feet of diverted canal water per day – to John’s Island to keep retention ponds and golf course water features filled, and landscaping green.
The influx is expected to replace treated re-use wastewater that John’s Island had purchased from Vero Beach Utilities and, when necessary, supplemented with well water.
John’s Island funded the bulk of the cost of the project, investing $8 million, with two state grants picking up nearly $5 million and Vero Beach Utilities spending $600,000 and contributing staff time to planning, engineering and constructing the system.
Removing the excess stormwater from canals drastically reduces the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus into the lagoon, helping the city meet state mandates imposed to improve the estuary’s health.
Bolton said the remaining tank on the Three Corners site will remain operational until a newly constructed wastewater treatment plant at the Vero Beach Regional Airport becomes operational in 2028.
“We’re planning for the new plant to be in the start-up phase by January 2028 and be fully operational by the summer of 2028,” he said. “Then we can take the current plant offline.”
Keiller said the foundation paid $85,000 to level the tank closest to the bridge. And who will cover the costs of demolishing the remaining tank after it’s abandoned? Bolton replied: “We’re hoping to transfer that problem.”
City Manager Monte Falls said city officials will include the demolition in their lease negotiations with the Clearpath Services/Madison Marquette partnership chosen to develop the Three Corners site.
Although the partnership’s plan focuses on the north side of the bridge, the city’s Request For Proposals gives the development group the right of first refusal on the property south of the bridge – excluding the three lagoon-front acres being leased by the foundation.
Negotiations between the city and developer are expected to begin next month.
Bolton said he has budgeted $1 million for the demolition and removal of the remaining tank.
In the meantime, Keiller said the foundation has scheduled an official groundbreaking for Jan. 9, and is targeting next December for the grand opening of its new sailing center.
He said he expected site work to begin next week.
The foundation is equipped with 80 sailboats and serves more than 300 children annually.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
