Laserfiche WebLink
County's largest mixed-use project abandoned by funder - VeroNews: Vero Beach 32963 ... Pagel of 3 <br />County's largest mixed-use project abandoned by <br />funder <br />Posted: Friday, September 12, 2014 5:00 am <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The largest mixed- <br />use residential and retail development project ever <br />planned for Indian River County has been killed by <br />its California funder, which has concluded that the <br />Vero and Sebastian market is simply not ready for <br />it. <br />The California investment fund that that owns the <br />Orchid Quay tract and was planning to finance a <br />$300 million residential community and upscale <br />retail center at the site has given up on the project <br />and put the property up for sale. <br />County's largest mixed-use <br />project abandoned by funder <br />Irvine, Calif. -based IHP Capital Partners has concluded on the basis of revised marketing <br />evaluations that the area cannot absorb the 250,000 square feet of retail space and 350 condos and <br />townhomes that were planned. <br />"They had consultants in here from California and Orlando — nobody local — and they said there <br />are too many vacant storefronts at the mall and in strip centers in Vero and Sebastian for this <br />much new retail space to make sense," says Vero Beach developer Joe Paladin, who has been <br />IHP's point man on the project for the past three years. <br />The 113 -acre site, which has $5 million worth of water, sewer and electrical infrastructure put in <br />place eight years ago when the project was called Bristol Bay, is at the southeast corner of the <br />U.S. 1 and CR -510 intersection, the second busiest intersection in the county. <br />Paladin still hopes to proceed with the project by building it in phases. He says he is talking with <br />Florida -based and overseas developers with the resources to build 90.000 square feet of retail and <br />office space and 100 town homes to begin with, but has not had time to put a deal together since <br />THP pulled out in August. <br />He envisions a shopping center similar to Harbor Point at U.S. 1 and 53rd St. where there is a <br />Publix and a number of small shops and services in a strip mall format. <br />"I would like to see something like a Fresh Market in there along with a bunch of shops and a <br />couple of restaurants," Paladin says. "The shops would have office space above. It is a perfect <br />http://www.veronews.com/32963—features/county-s-largest-mixed-use-project-abandoned-b... 4/7/2016 <br />P16 <br />