Big Blue: Vero Beach's Riverfront Power Plant

Big Blue is the name the City of Vero Beach uses for its decommissioned electric power plant, the large industrial building on the Indian River Lagoon north of the Alma Lee Loy Bridge in Indian River County.

The city's power plant property overview places the plant at 100 17th Street and measures the power plant property at 20.92 acres, noting that the boundary contains submerged lands owned by the City of Vero Beach. The city's 2023 offering memorandum for Three Corners describes it as the former electric power plant property next to the Indian River Lagoon and says the parcel is still occupied by the structures that defined its historical use: large industrial buildings, with zoning that still reflects the industrial nature of the property.

The plant was the second home of a city electric system that began almost a century earlier. The National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant records that in 1919 the new town of Vero began planning for its own electrical services, a decision it calls one with long range effects on the development of the community.

Vero Beach ran its own power plants because the town bought out a failing private utility in its first year.

According to the National Park Service nomination, a small private plant furnished electric power on a limited basis when Vero was incorporated in 1919. Its entire generating unit consisted of two 25 HP engines that generated electricity only on certain days and for short periods of time. When growth overwhelmed the private company, it offered the town the electrical plant for $9,000, and the town council purchased it when Vero was only a year old.

The town then built the Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant in 1926, which the nomination calls the first public utilities facility built by the town and the oldest municipal building in the community. By 1958 the population of Vero Beach had grown from 800 in 1920 to over 8,700, the city decided the diesel plant had reached its capacity, and plans were made to build a new steam electric power plant on the Indian River. The nomination also links the city's utilities to growth: in 1957, municipal services which by then included electricity, water and sewer attracted yet another industry, as the Piper Aircraft Company purchased airport grounds and built new buildings for a growing small airplane industry. That riverfront plant is the building now called Big Blue. The old diesel plant was kept as backup, and the nomination notes that several times after the new power plant went on line, the diesel units were called upon to provide start up electricity after regional power blackouts.

Vero Beach shut Big Blue down in December 2015 as part of its agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission, according to the city.

The City of Vero Beach offering memorandum states that as part of its agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission, the City shut down its electric power plant in December 2015. The city later left the electric business entirely. Florida Power and Light reported that it completed the purchase of the City of Vero Beach's electric utility on December 17, 2018, welcoming approximately 35,000 new customers after nearly a decade of work.

In the same release, FPL said the Vero Beach City Council had approved a $185 million agreement that allowed the city to exit its contractual obligations, pay off its existing debt and receive a cash payment. FPL also stated that its typical 1,000-kWh customer bill was about 20 percent lower than rates charged by Vero Beach at the time. The city Three Corners page ranks the future use of the waterfront as second in importance only to the recent sale of the municipal power plant.

The main Big Blue building has not been demolished; the city's own 2023 marketing document describes the industrial buildings as still standing.

The Vero Beach offering memorandum says the existing power plant structure is a nonconforming use under the City's Comprehensive Plan. It also says the City has agreed to lease a portion of the site to FPL to relocate the electric substation from the Electric Power Plant Property, a step tied to clearing the parcel for new uses.

The Vero Beach document leaves open how much of the building survives. It says development could reuse either the entire existing structure or only a portion, with indoor spaces focused on reuse of the great hall. It notes that a rooftop bar or restaurant in Big Blue, at a height of 60 ft. above street level, would offer unique views of the lagoon, while any new structure that does not make use of Big Blue would have to comply with the current maximum 65-foot building height limitation.

Big Blue sits on one of three city owned parcels that make up the Three Corners site in Vero Beach. The memorandum puts the total at 33.7 acres with 1,300 feet of waterfront along the Indian River Lagoon, at the intersection of 17th Street and Indian River Boulevard. The water treatment plant parcel to the south occupies another 16.3 acres, and a vacant postal annex occupies 4.6 acres across Indian River Boulevard. The memorandum says a new wastewater plant was under design to relocate that facility to the city's airport, and that the current facility would be decommissioned within five years.

The city opened Big Blue to the public in 2020 while it decided whether to keep, reuse or replace it.

The Three Corners Master Concept page says the city selected the design firm DPZ CoDesign to run a community engagement process, and that the project began on November 19, 2019, with a presentation to City Council and the formation of the Three Corners Steering Committee. Residents submitted ideas through speakupverobeach.com, and the outreach culminated in a week long design charrette at the Vero Beach Community Center.

The Vero Beach project timeline lists power plant tours on January 18 from 10am to noon and January 25 from 1pm to 3pm, open to the public with no registration necessary, followed by charrette week from January 27 to 31, 2020, with Andres Duany and DPZ CoDESIGN. DPZ prepared five scenarios for the site, including mothballing it, cultural and recreational use, and maximum development, and the Steering Committee reviewed them on February 25, 2020. The City Council adopted the master concept plan on February 1, 2022.

The Big Blue site is planned as a public waterfront destination with a hotel, park and commercial space under a master developer still in negotiation with the city.

The former power plant site is one of the city owned properties listed in Section 5.05 of the Vero Beach City Charter, which requires voter approval for a sale or lease. The city reports that on November 8, 2022, voters approved by 79% a charter provision allowing the site to be leased for restaurant, retail, hotel or similar commercial uses, while keeping public access to the waterfront, recreational space and pedestrian promenades, with all uses open to the public.

The council adopted a Comprehensive Plan amendment for the site on February 27, 2024 (Ordinance 2024-03) and the Three Corners Waterfront District regulations on August 12, 2025 (Ordinance 2025-08). After a reissued request for proposals drew two responses on December 17, 2024, the council selected Clearpath Services of Bloomington, Indiana, as preferred developer on April 22, 2025. As of the city page checked on October 15, 2026, staff had been directed to negotiate a master development agreement with a new entity that adds Madison Marquette, and to bring it back to the council for approval.

The Vero Beach selection followed several rounds. In 2022 the city requested information from interested developers and received responses from Don Urgo, E2L Real Estate and Equity First. In 2025 an evaluation committee of two city staff and three advisory board members ranked the two proposals on March 4, with analysis by PFM Financial Advisors and Stantec, and interviewed both firms on March 31. On May 6, 2025, the city gave Clearpath 90 days to document its financial capacity to complete the project. Separately, the council approved a lease with the Youth Sailing Foundation on August 8, 2023, for sailing facilities on the wastewater plant site.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, against the National Park Service nomination, FPL's December 2018 release and four City of Vero Beach pages and documents on the power plant and Three Corners.