At least two members of the original four partnerships that submitted proposals to develop Vero Beach’s Three Corners site have now expressed interest in joining the Clearpath Services group, sources familiar with the project said last week.

Indiana-based Clearpath and the city are currently in a 90-day pre-negotiation period, implemented to allow Lloyd to secure financing and finalize internal agreements and commitments from his partners.

The sources stopped short of identifying the two members from partnerships that submitted bids in 2024 who are now interested in participating with Clearpath, saying only they had been major players the first time around.  

Clearpath founder and president Randy Lloyd, In a Saturday morning phone interview with Vero Beach 32963, would only say his quest for additional financial partners was ongoing.

Lloyd said he did not want to publicly discuss specifics, but was “confident” his group will have the financial wherewithal to complete the much-anticipated project.

“We haven’t finalized anything yet,” he said, “but it’s looking really good.”

Lloyd said he planned to meet this week with the city’s Three Corners project manager, Peter Polk, and provide an update on his progress in responding to concerns about the group’s funding capacity.

Polk said the meeting would be held via Zoom later in the week. “I’ve had discussions with Randy, and we’re looking forward to moving ahead with his group,” he added.

The Vero Beach City Council voted unanimously in April to enter negotiations with Clearpath, which, along with the group’s high-profile partners, presented a $250 million plan to create a dining, retail, social and recreational hub on the mainland’s waterfront.

The council embraced Clearpath’s vision after the city’s Three Corners Evaluation Committee delivered an overwhelming recommendation, despite the untimely departure of the group’s financial partner, Westminster Capital.

Lloyd said Westminster Capital withdrew from the project two weeks before Clearpath’s March 4 presentation to the committee.

Since then, Lloyd has brought in the Hageman Group – a real-estate investor also based in Indiana – but he said, “There’s a specific area they really like, but they won’t be the primary financial partner.”

Lloyd said he has been contacted by local parties that have inquired about investing in the project, especially since the council chose the Clearpath team to develop the 17-acre property on the north side of the 17th Street Bridge, site of the city’s long-defunct power plant.

“There has always been unsolicited interest from people who want to be part of our capital stack,” he said, adding, “It’s fair to say some of those people have local connections, meaning they live there – at least on a part-time basis – or they have business connections there.”

As of last weekend, however, those potential investors did not include former Indian River Shores mayor Brian Barefoot, whose name surfaced in the Three Corners conversation last summer, when the city abandoned its initial Three Corners selection process.

Barefoot, reached by phone at his summer home in Vermont, said he has never been a partner – or even an investor – in the Clearpath group.

“I was an advocate for the Clearpath plan, just as a lot of other people were advocates for other plans,” said Barefoot, who also has served as chairman of the county’s School Board. “But I wasn’t a partner. I wasn’t an investor.  I wasn’t part of any group looking to invest.

“I liked what Clearpath was proposing, so I contacted Randy and offered to put him together with people who might want to invest,” he added. “If anything, I was a facilitator. That’s it.”

Barefoot said he also endorses Clearpath’s second proposal, which was submitted in December and scaled back to cut the cost estimate in half, but he is not an investor in the group.

He said he hasn’t spoken with Lloyd since the council, benefitting from a new and more-demanding RFP in its second attempt to choose a developer, made its decision to go with Clearpath.

“To me,” Barefoot said, “Clearpath has the right plan for this project.”

In June 2024, one week after a divided council made the Suda-led partnership its top choice for the project, the panel voted to disqualify the Pompano Beach-based group for violating the terms of the city’s Request For Proposals, and start over.

Against the legal counsel of City Attorney John Turner, then-council member Tracey Zudans recused herself from the disqualification vote, citing a “conflict of interest” in connection with an email she received from Barefoot, who wrote that he was disappointed with her decision to not choose Clearpath.

During what quickly deteriorated into a sometimes chaotic special-call council meeting, claims were made that Barefoot was a principal in the Clearpath group.

Clearpath representatives and Barefoot immediately rebutted the claim.

In May, Clearpath acknowledged receipt of a letter sent by City Manager Monte Falls to ensure the developer has the financial resources – prior to the start of formal negotiations in August.

The negotiations are expected to be concluded by the end of the year.

In the meantime, Lloyd said his team is doing its due diligence, adding, “So far, everything is moving along and we’re on track for negotiations.”