Communities
The barrier island, club by club
Barrier island communities, from John's Island to Central Beach, each with a guide and live inventory.
All communitiesBarrier island communities, from John's Island to Central Beach, each with a guide and live inventory.
All communities
Central Beach is the neighborhood around Ocean Drive. The beach, the shops, the theatre and dinner are all on foot.
Central Beach is not gated and has no club of its own. It is the village that grew up around Ocean Drive between the Barber Bridge and Riomar: a grid of tree-lined streets with Humiston Park and the public beach at one end and Riverside Park, the Vero Beach Museum of Art and Riverside Theatre at the other.
The housing stock is the most varied on the island: 1920s and 1930s cottages, mid-century ranches that have been rebuilt or replaced, new construction on the original lots, and a handful of oceanfront condominiums and boutique buildings along Ocean Drive and Sexton Plaza.
The commercial strip is compact and deliberately low-rise: galleries, boutiques, the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa, Costa d'Este, Ocean Grill on the sand, and a dozen restaurants within a few blocks. The Saturday farmers market sets up at Humiston Park, and the city's height limits and preservation ordinances have kept the scale of the district essentially as it was.
Central Beach trades on location rather than acreage. Lots are typically a quarter to a half acre, and prices range from around $1.5 million for an original cottage to $6 million and above for new construction a block from the ocean. Oceanfront condominiums along Ocean Drive span a similar range. Because there is no club, there are no membership requirements or club dues; the tradeoff is that pools, docks and tennis are what you build or bring.
The Barber Bridge connects Central Beach to downtown Vero Beach in five minutes; Riomar is immediately south and The Moorings ten minutes further. Jaycee Park, Humiston Park and South Beach Park provide guarded public beach access, and Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital is ten minutes across the bridge.
No. It is an open city neighborhood, which is what makes it walkable to Ocean Drive and the beach. Several small oceanfront condominium buildings within it are secured.
From most of Central Beach, yes. Humiston Park and Jaycee Park are the two guarded public beaches, and Sexton Plaza sits at the foot of Ocean Drive.
Historic cottages, renovated mid-century homes, new construction on original lots, and oceanfront condominiums along Ocean Drive.
No club is attached to the neighborhood. Many residents belong to Riomar Country Club, Quail Valley or the Moorings Yacht & Country Club, each a short drive away.
