The Indian River Shores Town Council last Thursday approved a conceptual plan for what likely will be the last large-scale residential development ever built in the well-to-do six-mile stretch of the island.

The Patten Company, a national real estate development firm with offices in Naples and Boca Raton, plans 47 substantial single-family homes and 21 townhomes on a parcel that extends from A1A to the Indian River Lagoon just north of Palm Island Plantation.

“The community will have a coastal contemporary style that should blend with our existing neighbors,” said Patten Vice President of Acquisitions Katherine Dobbins, who bird-dogged the property and managed the purchase.

“We will be selling lots as well as finished homes and are actively seeking local builders to join our preferred builder program, so that we will be able to offer several different models to buyers. We hope to break ground in early 2018.”

Patten closed on the property June 30, paying $5 million for 34 acres of former grove land. The seller was Charleston Estates Vero LLC, an entity of Philadelphia billionaire Brook Lenfest, whose company Beachlen Development was active in Vero until recently.

Partners Clark French and Cindy O’Dare of Premier Estate Properties were the listing and selling agents on the deal.

When they got the listing, French and O’Dare used a database company to identify 4,000 builders and developers who had pulled permits for residential projects in Florida with construction cost of $1 million or more, French said.

One of those companies was Patten, which has built more than 600 communities in 36 states and Canada, including nearly 50 in Florida, according to Dobbins.

“Vero has always been on our radar as a strong market in Florida,” Dobbins said. Dobbins said the development, which will be called The Strand, represents “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for Patten.

“It is extremely rare to find a large parcel available in a developed and high-end area like Indian River Shores,” she wrote in an email to Vero Beach 32963. “The recreational opportunities really make this project special. There will be private beach access across the street, boat docks on the Indian River, biking and jogging on the Jungle Trail as well as all of the nearby shops and restaurants that make this area so popular.”

“The timing is good,” said French. “Inventory of new homes on the island is very low.”

Patten’s property is the last large piece of development land that is available in Indian River Shores.

The tract – originally part of a 41.5-acre ocean-to-river parcel – was assembled from grove land in 2004 as the real estate boom was ramping up and sold to McGough, a construction and development company headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., for $16.5 million.

But when the real estate market slowed to a crawl in the mid-2000s, Lenfest’s Beachlen Development snapped it up in 2012 for $10.95 million.

Three years ago, in October 2014, island businesswoman Katherine McConvey bought the oceanfront part of the tract, paying $7,250,000 for acreage on the east side of A1A where she plans to build an ultra-luxurious modernist condo complex with 18 homes.

That left the western portion, which has 620 linear feet of river frontage along the historic Jungle Trail that Patten has now laid out as The Strand. Dobbins said pricing for the new homes has not been decided on, but French speculated the townhomes could start in the $700,000-$800,000 range.