Updated Apr 23, 2015

New restaurant and retail space will be coming soon on U.S. 1 between 10th St. and 17th St. in the form of two redevelopment projects announced by Robert’s Equities, a mid-size real estate development and holding company with offices in Boca Raton.

The company purchased a 3.65-acre bank-owned parcel on the east side of U.S. 1 on March 30 for $1.25 million. The property at 1066 U.S. 1 extends from 10th Place on the south to 11th Street on the north. It is the former location of a Lincoln Mercury dealership.

Roberts Equities has already sold off one corner of the property that fronts on U.S. 1, which will be developed by a national retailer. The company plans to build and lease out two additional buildings on the site, a 4,000-square-foot structure on U.S. 1 that will house a small restaurant, a cell-phone store and one other small tenant, and a 12,000-square-foot retail building with multiple tenants that sits behind the two front buildings.

The company also has acquired two adjoining pieces of property at the southeast corner of U.S. 1 and 17th Street, where a Mobile Station that has seen better days and a defunct restaurant now sit. That property, too, will be redeveloped.

“We have decided U.S. 1 is the place,” said Roberts Equites vice president Randy Tulepan. “We think there are quite a few opportunities along that stretch of road, which has lagged other parts of Vero in terms of development.”

Tulepan cited the Ocean Drive beachfront dining and shopping district and Miracle Mile as places that typify modern Vero Beach. “U.S. 1 has come catching up to do,” he said. “The area needs a lot of redevelopment and we plan to be at least a small part of that.”

Tulepan said construction and redevelopment at the former Lincoln dealership site will proceed “as fast as governmental entities let us go. We have already had discussions with building officials.”

Besides the two parcels on U.S. 1 in Vero Beach, Robert’s Equities has purchased a 10-acre parcel at Indrio Road and I-95, where it plans 90,000 square feet of retail. In St. Lucie, the company is developing Coral Square Shoppes at 3006 U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce and the Orange Avenue Shoppes, where it plans “a 330,000 sq. ft. retail power/lifestyle center with restaurants new to the market and incorporating an entertainment component to the mix,” according to the company website.