This winter, a lit cupola on the mainland shore should be visible to anyone crossing the 17th Street Bridge after dark. Kelly Pipkin, job superintendent for Proctor Construction, says its windows will be LED-lit and will "look like a lighthouse when you are coming over the bridge at night." The cupola sits on top of the Pat Harris Community Sailing Center, a 10,000-square-foot building the Youth Sailing Foundation is finishing on the lagoon south of the bridge.
Most of the attention around Three Corners goes to the north side. That's where the old Big Blue power plant stands and where the city hopes to see a riverfront district with a hotel, a marina and restaurants. Three Corners actually covers about 38 acres of city-owned waterfront at the foot of the bridge, on both sides. The first part the public will use is coming from the south side, and a nonprofit paid for it. Its grand opening is set for December. On the north side, the lease talks hit another deadline on Oct. 12 and still have no signed agreement.
A fully funded building south of the bridge
The Youth Sailing Foundation's budget for the building, pier, pavilions, boat ramps, playground and property is $6.4 million. "It is fully funded," project manager Stu Keiller told Vero News in August, adding, "The park is open to the public." The foundation is also leasing the surrounding land, the three lagoon-front acres that make up the Charlie and Chris Pope Marine Recreational Park.
Andre Duany, the architect and urban planner, helped shape the building's British West Indies design. It's built from concrete block with a metal roof, on a foundation that goes down to marl and coquina. Several features reach beyond the foundation's own students:
- Ground floor: a 4,000-square-foot boat repair and boat-building shop, boat storage, and large restrooms with showers that will be open to the public.
- Second floor: a main hall with a vaulted wooden ceiling, a caterer's kitchen and classrooms. It opens onto a 12-foot-wide east-facing veranda and a southeast patio. Keiller says that on a clear day you can see the condo towers in Fort Pierce from up there.
- The park: picnic and outdoor-classroom pavilions, floating docks for small boats, dinghy launch ramps, and public access for small-watercraft launching, according to the foundation's project page. The same page shows a fishing pier on the north side, but as part of the city's master plan.
- Adult sailing: the adult program has 50 members, and Keiller expects it could quickly grow to 200. Members learn in, and can later rent, five Flying Scots. These are 19-foot sloops custom-built for the foundation by a family firm in western Maryland.
The foundation also plans to rent the building for corporate retreats and other events, with the income going to its youth programs.
How the south side got moving first
The south side has been ready longer. Keiller says the foundation has been working on the project since 2019, when the city first began talking about Three Corners. Its planning, fundraising and design were done before construction could legally start.
The last obstacle was a reclaimed-water storage tank at the city's wastewater treatment plant, which sat on roughly the footprint of the new building. The tank couldn't come down until the city's irrigation pipeline to John's Island was running. That pipeline went online Dec. 1, 2025, and demolition of the tank began that day. The work wrapped up Dec. 16. The foundation paid $85,000 to remove the tank closest to the bridge. The official groundbreaking was held in January.
Construction went on through the summer. Keiller says the foundation's eight-week sailing camp, its largest ever, ran on the site while crews worked around it.
South of the bridge | North of the bridge | |
|---|---|---|
Who is building | Youth Sailing Foundation | ClearBlue Holdings, if a lease is signed |
Money | $6.4 million budget, described as fully funded | Financial disclosures sent to the city in September for review |
Current stage | Building under construction, set to finish Nov. 10 | Lease talks under a third 30-day extension |
Next date | Grand opening scheduled for Dec. 11, 11 a.m. | Extension expires Oct. 12, with a council update on Oct. 13 |
Keiller and Pipkin both said in August that the project was on schedule, with the building done by Nov. 10 and the grand opening on Dec. 11 at 11 a.m. Those dates have already moved once. A foundation release in March gave October 2026 as the completion date. December is the current target, and the opening date isn't guaranteed.
The north side, one month at a time
Here's how the north side reached this point. City Council chose Clearpath Services, The Ridge Group and DMJR Development in April 2025. Clearpath didn't have enough funding on its own, so it partnered with Madison Marquette, which had financed a rival bid, and the two formed ClearBlue. Formal negotiations started March 11 under a 120-day window. The city then granted three 30-day extensions. Council approved the most recent one 5–0 on Sept. 8, running to close of business Oct. 12.
Before that vote, City Manager Monte Falls emailed ClearBlue on Sept. 1. He asked for a revised concept plan, a revised construction schedule, a business pro forma and documents showing a sufficient financing plan. According to the Sept. 8 council minutes, the revised concept plan and schedule had arrived by the meeting and the financials hadn't. Falls later told Vero News that the financial information had come in.
The minutes also show where the lease itself stands. The city had sent ClearBlue a draft, and ClearBlue answered with questions. Staff held off on answering until the financial information arrived. Once it did, the city's financial consultant would analyze it before real talks on lease terms could start. When a council member asked whether the Oct. 12 extension would be the last, Falls said he expected the city would leave room for more so it could keep negotiating in good faith.
Randy Lloyd, a principal of Clearpath Services and ClearBlue Holdings, explained the pace to council:
"This is a complex deal. To do a long-term lease and a long-term development agreement, it's not a 10-page document. It's an extensive document."
Lloyd said ClearBlue's subcommittees had been working through environmental requirements and permitting for the marina, and that the team had finished a hotel market study. Falls also addressed a rumor that ClearBlue wanted to buy the land outright. He said the city charter doesn't allow that sale. The plan is still a 99-year lease.
The Oct. 13 council agenda includes an "Update on Three Corners" under City Manager matters. As of today, it doesn't list a fourth extension request or a draft lease as separate items.
What the north side is proposing
HOK is the lead architect, and its published concept keeps the Big Blue building. It would become a Great Hall with a food court, a grocer, galleries and offices. Around it, the plan shows two hotels, a 400-seat event center, a waterfront village, an 84-slip marina and a floating tiki bar. The public spaces include a Grand Promenade, a community park and amphitheater, a festival plaza for markets and art fairs, a fishing pier, a playground and a beach-volleyball court. The project credits list XDEA as consulting architect, Ennismore as hotelier, Bellingham Marine for the marina and Turner Construction as general contractor.
All of that is still a proposal. The city was reviewing a revised concept plan as recently as September. After a lease is signed, the developer still has to finalize the design and apply for demolition and building permits. In November 2025, Vero News reported that major work on the main development wasn't expected before 2027. Voters opened the door to all this in November 2022, when nearly 80% approved commercial development on the former power-plant parcel.
Why the sailing center will have a working plant next door for a while
One more south-side timeline matters to anyone who'll use the new park. A second wastewater tank still stands near the sailing center, and the treatment plant stays in service until the city's new plant at Vero Beach Regional Airport is ready. Water-Sewer Director Rob Bolton said in December that the new plant should begin start-up in January 2028 and be fully running by summer 2028. Only then can the current plant shut down.
Bolton has budgeted $1 million to demolish that remaining tank. Falls said the demolition would be part of the lease negotiations with the developer. The city's request for proposals also gives the development group the right of first refusal on the land south of the bridge, except for the foundation's three acres. So the lease being negotiated this month will also decide what happens to the land next to the sailing center once the plant goes offline.
This makes two dates worth watching:
- Oct. 13: City staff gives council its Three Corners update, the day after ClearBlue's third extension ends.
- Dec. 11, 11 a.m.: The Pat Harris Community Sailing Center's scheduled grand opening on the lagoon south of the 17th Street Bridge.
If you'd like to talk through what a finished riverfront at the 17th Street Bridge could mean for your mainland home, or for one you're thinking about, The Sutcliffe Group follows the Three Corners negotiations closely and can walk you through what's on the record. Schedule a consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
