Ron & Christine Hughes - your only Vero Beach Realtors

Vero Beach, Florida - The Sunshine State

Called the jewel of the Treasure Coast, Vero Beach has unbeatable charm & offers dynamic array of cultural offerings.

Vero Beach, Florida
Location in Indian River County and the state of Florida
Coordinates: 27°38′31″N 80°23′28″W / 27.64194, -80.39111
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Indian River
Incorporated (Vero)	1919
<Incorporated (Vero Beach)	1925
Government
- Type	Commission-Manager
- Mayor	Thomas P. White
- City Manager	James M. Gabbard
Area
- City	12.93 sq mi (33.5 km²)
- Land	11.07 sq mi (28.7 km²)
- Water	1.85 sq mi (4.8 km²) 14.31%
Elevation	13 ft (4 m)
Population (1 July 2006)
- City	16,916
- Metro	130,100
	Census Bureau estimate
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP codes	32960-32969
Area code(s)	772
FIPS code	12-74150
GNIS feature ID	0292760

More information

The City of Vero Beach is a political subdivision of the State of Florida. The City was originally incorporated in 1919 as the City of Vero. In 1925, the City of Vero was re-incorporated as the City of Vero Beach and was transferred from St. Lucie County to Indian River County.

The City of Vero Beach consists of 13.1 square miles and is located about 190 miles south of Jacksonville and 135 miles north of Miami on Florida's east coast. The City's population is currently estimated at 18,160.

The City of Vero Beach serves as its county seat, and is under a Council-Manager form of government.

Vero Beach is a full-service City. All traditional city services such as police, public works, and recreation are provided. In addition, the City of Vero Beach operates an electric generation plant, electrical distribution system, water and sewer plants, solid waste collection department, airport and marina.

The city is divided by the Indian River Lagoon into the mainland on one side and the oceanfront barrier island on the other. The island is comprised of wealthy vacation dwellers and well-to-do year-round residents. Restrictive zoning has allowed the island to repel attempts to develop high-rise hotels and large commercial centers, so it maintains a quiet, residential atmosphere.

Vero Beach may be best known as the location of Dodgertown, where the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team have held their spring training camp since 1948, and where the minor league Vero Beach Devil Rays play during their regular season.

Piper Aircraft Inc. builds aircraft here. Major industries include citrus fruit packing and tourism.

Local Arts & Entertainment

Visual Arts - The Vero Beach Museum of Art, at Riverside Park.

This is the largest cultural institution of its kind in Florida's Treasure Coast. Here they host national and international art exhibitions, the Museum also is the home of a very active art school.

www.vbmuseum.org

Theartical Arts - Riverside Theatre in Riverside Park.

This is a professional theatre with a full season of on- and off- Broadway productions and musical groups. Through the Vero Beach Concert Association, the theatre also presents nationally known musicians and dancers. A second facility on adjoining property houses the Riverside Children's Theatre, offering both professional performances and theatrical workshops for local children.

www.riversidetheatre.com

Musical Arts.

Atlantic Classical Orchestra - high quality, live performances of classical orchestral music.

Indian River Symphonic Association Inc. - provides performances by nationally and internationally renowned symphonic orchestras and soloists.

The International Institute of Music at Vero Beach - composed of the School of Strings, the School of Music Technology and the Indian River Youth Symphony.

The Vero Beach Opera Guild, Inc - promotes and suports opera and conducts study classes on opera and the enjoyment of operatic peformances.

Other Non-Profit and Privately Sponsored Musical Events.

Historic Places 

Vero Railroad Station

McKee Jungle Gardens

• Driftwood Inn - located in Vero's central beach business district, it is a historic hotel constructed in the early 20th Century by the late local eccentric and explorer Waldo Sexton. This facility was originally built entirely from pieces of driftwood and other antiques. Sexton also designed the "Hall of Giants" at McKee Jungle Gardens.
• Hallstrom House
• Indian River County Courthouse
• Indian River Historical Society - is housed in the 1930 Vero Beach train station 
• Judge Henry F. Gregory House
• Maher Building
• McKee Jungle Gardens - established in 1922, is an 18-acre subtropical jungle hammock filled with rich landscapes and historic architechtural treasures. You can visit periodic exhibitions ranging from plant and flower shows to dinosaur displays
• Old Palmetto Hotel
• Pueblo Arcade
• Royal Park Arcade
• Theodore Hausmann Estate
• Old Vero Beach Community Building
• The McLarty Treasure Museum - operated museum on the site of the area's famous shipwreck of Spanish treasure galleons during a hurricane in the summer of 1715.
• Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant
• Vero Beach Woman's Club
• Vero Railroad Station
• Vero Theatre

Hotels, Shopping & Dining

Oceanside accomodation, gourmet restaurants and a wide variety of shopping opportunities are found in Vero Beach.

Hotels

Vero Beach's barrier island is lined with low-rise, relaxing oceanfront hotels.

Tropical days and urban nights go hand in hand at Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s newest Personal Luxury Resort™. Located ocean-side in Vero Beach, Florida, Costa d’Este features 94 deluxe guest rooms and suites, a destination restaurant and bar, a sparkling pool, spa and fitness center and facilities for weddings and special meeting events—all within moments of the finest shopping, dining and entertainment in Vero Beach.

Nestled on Florida’s east coast in the ocean-side community of Vero Beach lies an exquisite world-class retreat surrounded by white sand beaches and lush natural views. Specifically designed to pamper, relax and inspire, this Personal Luxury Resort that seamlessly blends Four-Star accommodations with an array of the finest amenities, eagerly awaits your arrival. With a prestigious location in one of America’s 100 best art towns known for its relaxed atmosphere, Costa d’Este provides an exclusive oceanfront haven accompanied by Benchmark’s renowned hospitality.

For more information click here

 From the most northernmost hotel, Disney's Vero Beach Resort, to the hotels of the South Beach, there is something for every style and price range.

Shopping

Art galleries to antiques, shopping centers to outlet malls, beach side boutiques featuring designer linens, jewelry, fine fashions and footwear! There are unlimited opportunities to find “just the right something” for yourself or to take back home. Tucked into cozy, tropical settings, you’ll find it’s well worth your time exploring the charm of Vero Beach.

Primarily split into six major area, each has its own district personality and opportunities:

The Oceanside Business District - located on Vero Beach's barrier island on Ocean & Cardinal drives.

The Village Shops & Pelican Plaza - both on Highway A1A, north of the Oceanside Business District.

Royal Palm Pointe - the peninsula ends with a large park with an interactive fountain & plenty of room to enjoy the surrounding water views.

Miracle Mile - in many ways a hub of action in Vero Beach.

The U.S 1 corridor - lined with a multitude of shopping centers.

The Indian River Mall & Outlets at Vero Beach - located west of Vero Beach on Route 60.

Dining

From quick bites to five-star delights, Vero Beach is home to a multitude of restaurants.

You can enjoy a variety of pleasurable dining experiences from hot and spicy, "peel & eat" shrimp to exquisite French cuisine, good old home-style cooking to succulent steaks and seafood. It's all here in Vero Beach.

Natural Resources

From May 1 to October 31, giant sea turtles emerge from the ocean to lay eggs in nests on the beach. Sea turtles are endangered species and are protected under federal law. As one of the primary nesting areas in the western hemis[phere, Vero Beach maintains strict limitaton on beach front lighting, especially during nesting season.

Other amazing creatures live with the residents of Vero Beach including, aligators, opossum, otters, raccoons, bobcats & birds of all shapes & sizes.

McKee Botanical Garden has an exceptional display of tropical and sub-tropical plants for the garden entusiast.

Vero Beach many other ways to view the natural environment:

Scuba diving - Great diving sites extend from the Sebastian Inlet to Round Island, including coral and artificial reefs and the site of the 1715 wreck of the Spanish galleon in the south end of Vero Beach.

Fishing - head for the ocean inlets at Sebastian or Fort Pierce for salt water game fish such as sailfish, grouper, dolphin, whoo, and snapper.

Kayaking & canoeing - cruise along the river & experience the natural beauty from another level. Have an organised tour or hire them yourself.

Surfing - To catch the perfect wave, one doesn't have to go as far as California. The Sebastian Inlet, famous for fishing, is even more reknown for Surfing.

Boating - Experience a voyage of discovery and adventure aboard a narrated eco-sightseeing cruise on the Indian River Lagoon. See Dolphins, Manatees, Osprey, Anhinga, Cormorants, Pelican and Herons. View luxurious waterfront homes, explore spoil islands or stop by a riverfront restaurant.

Beaches

Vero Beach is known for its outstanding beaches. Part of Florida's Treasure Coast, the beaches combine excellent sand quality with significant surf and tidal action. Vero's main public beach is known as South Beach, accessible at the eastern end of Causeway Boulevard.

Sports & Fitness

An abundance of clear, sunny days makes outdoor sports possible year round. Vero Beach is an an athelete's paradise.

Golf

Vero Beach holds over 20 private & public golf courses that offer a wide variety of facilities & standrds of play.  Many of the private gold courses were designed by the top golf course architects of the world.

They include Red Stick, John's Island, Hawk's Nest, Vero Beach Country Club, Quail Valley, The Moorings Club, Grand Harbor, The Links at Pointe West and others. 

If you would like any more information or contact details please call Helen Charlton direct on 772-774-4417.

Tennis

Tennis courts are also available at both private & public facilities around Vero Beach.  Har Tru & other clay courts as well as asphalt courts, are found here.

They include Indian Trails, Sea Oaks, The Boulevard Village, Jungle Club, Twin Oaks, Riverside Park and others.

Health Club & Spa facilities

These are also a growing tend in Vero Beach.  Weight training, spinning, yoga, boxing, aerobics, & aquasize are just a few of the many exercise opportunites available at local health clubs.  Most clubs also offer personal trainers.

Baseball

The most famous athletes in vero Beach are undoubtedly the Los Angeles Dodgers who arrive every spring for training.   Dodgertown is their local home, with the 6500-seat Holman Stadium, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts & an adjoining convention center.  Games are held throughout the spring months with other major league teams.  The Vero Beach Dodgers, the local minor-league team, play during the late spring & early summer.

Equestrian

Now home to two major equestrian facilities: the Windsor polo grounds, and the Vero Beach and Saddle Club. Throughout the winter months, the private community of Windsor opens its doors for special events, including polo matches and concerts, benefiting local charities.  The Vero Beach anmd Saddle Club offers lessons all year, as well as thrilling polo matches every weekend of the polo season. 

Medical

Indian River County is home to doctors of every speciality and advanced medical facilities. There are two major medical facilities: the Indian River medical Center and the Sebastian River Medical Center.

Celebrating 75 years of caring for our community, Indian River Medical Center is an award-winning 335-bed not-for-profit hospital centrally located on Florida's east coast.
In addition to a new heart center affiliated with Duke University Health System, IRMC is well known for its comprehensive cancer program, nationally recognized vascular surgery and orthopedic services, its spacious and modern ER and a wound healing center with a healing rate of 91 percent in 16 weeks. The IRMC maternity wing welcomes more than 1,200 babies to the world every year. For your privacy and comfort, IRMC features all private rooms.

Vision Statement:
Indian River Medical Center strives to be the finest community-based healthcare organization anywhere.

Our Values:
Compassion, Respect, Teamwork

Mission Statement:
IRMC will serve as the area's leading provider of comprehensive high quality health and medical services, and will distinguish itself as the County's community hospital with commitment to assess and meet the healthcare needs of individuals and the overall community.

For more information about the Indian River Medical Center go to http://www.irmh.com/gui/content.asp

Sebastian River Medical Center opened its doors on Feb. 17, 1974, and began serving the residents of Indian River and Brevard Counties. This facility has the luxury of being old enough to be established in the community while being young enough to offer the latest technology and services available in the health-care field.

Our ideal is wrapped up in our mission statement: "Sebastian River Medical Center is committed to achieving the highest level of measurable quality and efficiency in the delivery of health-care services that are responsive to the needs and values of our patients, physicians, employees and visitors."

Sebastian River Medical Center's Chief Executive Officer Emily Holliman has an important goal: to make SRMC the hospital of choice for patients, physicians and healthcare workers in Indian River and South Brevard counties. New services and equipment are continuously being added to the hospital to make sure SRMC is able to meet the health-care needs of the Sebastian River area. We are Neighbors Caring for Neighbors.

Indian River Medical Center

Vero Beach and Indian River County also offer a wide range of assisted living and physical rehabilitation facilities. Non-emergency walk-in care is offered at the Indian River County Walk-in Clinic, a satellite of Indian River Medical Center, on Indian River Drive beween the Barber Bridge and Miracle Mile.

Local phsyicians are available in every area of speciality, from dermatology to dental surgery.

Schools & Educational Opportunities

Both public and private schools are aviable to students from preschool to college.

National achievement tests have proven that the quality of Indian River County's public school system is above national average. Kindergarten is required by the state of Florida and children must be 5 years old on September 1 to enroll. Many public elementary schools and three public high schools provide a broad spectrum of educational opportunities.  Indian River County is also home to several charter schools, two magnet schools and a center for exceptional education.

Saint Edward's School and St Helen's Catholic School are the two major private schools in the county.  Saint Edward's offers programs from Pre-K to 12th graders (https://www.steds.org/)

Saint Helen's offers programs from Kindergarten to 8th grade (www.sthelenvero.org)

At a college level, the Indian River Community College provides schooling for over 40,000 residents (9,800 full-time). Located on tropical Treasure Coast Florida, this college stands out as a two-year public post-secondary institution dedicated to serving the educational, career training, and cultural needs of its surrounding area.

Linking Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie Counties with eight Campuses, IRCC offers a wide range of degree and certificate programs, including Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degrees, as well as shorter-term certificate programs. The College strives to provide its students with a maximum of educational options; programs are offered not only for students who plan to transfer to upper-level colleges or universities, but also for students who wish to pursue careers immediately upon completion of their IRCC programs.

With its community in mind, IRCC provides a full curriculum for students who want to take classes to expand their interests and enhance specific job skills. Additional programs include the Adult Basic Education Program, the General Educational Development (GED) Program, English As A Second Language Program, the Adult Vocational Credit Program, the Centers for Personalized Instruction, the Adult High School, and the Women's Program.

For more information please go to http://www.ircc.edu/

The Richardson Center at IRCC's Vero beach campus is a full service business operations center, offering interactive meeting rooms that utilize state-of-the-art technology.

Barry University, the Florida Institute of Technology, Florida Atlantic University and Rollins College/Brevard are also within commuting distance of Indian River County.

For all contact numbers for all the public, private & charter schools in Vero Beach please call 772-774-4417 and we will be happy to help you.

Transportation

Vero Beach is conveniently located between several airports, giving residents ajnd visitors their choice of travel options.

Melbourne International Airport - www.mlbair.com

Consider Florida's busiest airport, offering the most airlines, Orlando International Airport - www.orlandoairports.net

Larger than melbourne International & south of Vero Beach, Palm Beach International Airport - www.pbia.org

Vero Beach Municipal Airport is Vero Beach's local airport and open to the public.  They have a flying school here.

Industry

The Florida East Coast Railway's mainline bisects Vero Beach, The old passenger depot was relocated next to the trackage to its current location, though there is no regularly scheduled passenger service to Vero Beach at present, but serves as a musuem. FEC serves a local lumber/building materials customer in Vero Beach itself that receives boxcars and flatcars, and a sand/aggregate customer just to the north of Vero that receives hopper cars, including FEC's signature Ortner aggregate hoppers. These are visible to railfans when they travel on the roadway that parallels the FEC right-of-way. Most FEC trains, and NS run-throughs with trackage rights, pass through Vero under cover of darkness. FEC is fully-CTC, and extremely well-maintained. Indeed, employment with FEC is one of the most coveted railroad industry jobs in the South-east United States. Just to the north of Vero, in the vicinity of the sand/aggregate customer, the now-disconnected spurs that once served citrus-packing companies in the area can be seen. These companies now ship their product by truck. It is unknown, at present, if FEC intends to try to recapture this business by reconnecting the various spurs and offering regular local service that can move the product to market faster.

Notable residents (full time and seasonal)

Vero Beach is home to astronauts, retired CEO's, entertainment celebrities & European royality, all living discreetly in Vero Beach's quiet, unpretentious environs. You may have heard of this select group:

• Hugh B. Cave , author
• Jake Owen , Country Music Singer-Songwriter
• Mardy Fish , professional tennis player
• Calvin Souther Fuller , Inventor of Solar Cell, died 1994
• Ivan Lendl , former professional tennis player
• Albert Reed , Model, 2007 Dancing with the stars competitor, Actor, graduated from Vero Beach High School in 2003
• Terry Taylor , professional wrestler

Did you know????....

Vero Beach was the site of a major archaeological discovery by local resident Frank Ayers in 1915. Known as the 'Vero Man', the find created an international controversy for it provided the first evidence that human beings had inhabited the 'new world' prior to the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (c. 10,000 BCE). Over the next thirty years, the remains were shuffled back and forth between the Smithsonian Institution and the Florida State Museum of History in Tallahassee. Experts could never reach an agreement and the remains were eventually lost just prior to the invention of Carbon-14 dating in 1947. Interest in Vero Man gradually waned, though more recently there was some renewed interest in finding the remains.

For information about Vero Beach in Indian River County, please visit www.indianriverchamber.com  or www.covb.org

Any more questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact Ron or Christine.

Email: vero32963@comcast.net

Cell 1: 772-532-8894

Cell 2: 772-538-5899

Please click on Community Report, City Profile & School Report for additional information.