The 1926 Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant — Vero Beach, Florida

The Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant is the masonry building beside the Florida East Coast Railway tracks in downtown Vero Beach that generated the city's electricity for 35 years. The Florida Division of Historical Resources calls it the first public utilities facility built by the town and the oldest municipal building in the community. It was finished in 1926 in the Masonry Vernacular style, a plain brick and concrete industrial form rather than the Mediterranean Revival fronts found on nearby 14th Avenue.

This page covers that 1926 downtown building only. It is a different structure from the larger city plant that replaced it as the main power source in 1961, which the Indian River Guardian nicknamed the blue monster in 2013. The diesel plant's later life runs from backup duty through a long vacancy, a stalled lease, a court settlement and a 2016 sale, ending in its reuse as American Icon Brewery, which opened in 2017.

Electricity in Vero began as a private venture. The Indian River Guardian recounts that the city's first power plant was built in 1918 by a private operator, Vero Utilities Company, using a 25 horsepower oil engine bolted to a generator inside a sheet metal building. Vero grew faster than the company could supply, and a bond election held in early 1920 approved buying the plant and its distribution system along with a new site adjacent to the railroad. Vero had 793 residents at the time, according to the same account.

The first municipal plant on the railroad site was a wood and sheet metal building. Three years later a fire destroyed most of it, and in April 1925 the Vero council approved a contract for the first phase of the current diesel plant building. The state's historic places survey describes the same sequence: after the town incorporated in 1919, rapid growth overwhelmed the small private plant, so the town council purchased it and hired the architects Carter and Damerow and the engineering firm of Kennard and Sons to design a replacement. The National Park Service NPGallery record lists Carter and Damerow with Kennard and Sons as architects, gives community planning and development as the area of significance, and names 1926 and 1937 as significant years for the Vero Beach plant.

From 1926 the diesel engines on the railroad site carried the city's load. The Indian River Guardian reports that the plant served as the primary source of electricity until the current plant went into operation in 1961, and from then until the late 1980s the diesel plant served as a back-up electric source for Vero Beach. A 2019 Indian River Guardian release adds that the property was once the only public source of electricity and water in Vero Beach until the late 1950s.

Equipment was added over time. The second significant year on the National Register record, 1937, matches the date of a generator unit that survives inside the building today. After the 1961 plant took over daily generation, the downtown building settled into standby use, and the 2019 Guardian release states the building was vacated in 1995, almost 40 years after daily operations ceased. By the late 1990s the Guardian described the Vero Beach plant as out of date and crumbling, with demolition a real possibility.

Members of the Indian River County Historical Society organized the effort to save the building and applied for National Register status, which the Guardian reports was granted on February 26, 1999. The same article notes that, at about that time, downtown Vero Beach received Main Street designation from the State of Florida, partly because three downtown buildings were now on the register: the old railroad station, the Heritage Center and the diesel plant.

Local protection followed. The City of Vero Beach Local Register page lists the VB Diesel Power Plant under Ordinance 2008-08, adopted July 15, 2008, which automatically placed existing National Register properties on the city's Local Register of Historic Places unless the owner declined. The city's National Register page names the Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant among thirteen listed properties in the city, alongside the Vero Theatre, the Pueblo Arcade and the Indian River County Courthouse, and assigns review of nominations to the Historic Preservation Commission.

The first reuse idea for the Vero Beach building tied it to a proposed Amtrak passenger stop, with a commercial center and ticket office. In late 2001 the city approved a long-term lease with a local redevelopment team that planned to spend $750,000 on the building in return for a 45-year lease, effective once environmental cleanup was done. The city's cleanup, first expected to cost about $20,000 and finish by April 30, 2002, was not completed until late in 2007 at a total cost of about $300,000, according to the 2013 Guardian account.

Exterior and roof work on the Vero Beach plant was completed, but the 2008 recession left the building without tenants and lease payments went unpaid. In 2013 and 2014 the Cultural Council of Indian River County promoted an arts center modeled on the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia; at an April 2014 presentation that drew nearly 100 people, the Guardian reported an early estimate of $5 million. The lease dispute went to court. In October 2015 a court-approved agreement let the city take possession, and City Manager Jim O'Connor said he would recommend selling the property. A ruling in October 2016 went in the city's favor on the back rent and contract claims.

In February 2016 city officials met to review and rank three competing proposals for the 1.64-acre old diesel plant site in downtown Vero Beach, according to the Indian River Guardian. The offers were $660,000, $650,000 and $625,000: one for a boutique distillery and tasting bar, one for an arts and events space with a cafe, and one for a microbrewery and taproom with a restaurant and beer garden. The City Clerk keeps the submissions on its Historical Diesel Power Plant RFPs page, including the American Icon Brewery business plan and the Treasure Coast Distilling proposal.

The brewery proposal prevailed. The Guardian reported in October 2016 that the old Vero Beach power plant had been bought for $500,000 and was being converted into a craft brewery. Following a $6 million renovation, the building reopened in 2017 as a brewpub and production brewery, and a 1937 generator unit was retained as the centerpiece of American Icon Brewery. On February 8, 2019, the Indian River County Historical Society and the brewery co-hosted a fundraiser in the building, and the brewery named one recipe Ruth's Indian River Ale in recognition of the Historical Society's role in saving the plant.