Four miles from the gate at Waterway Village sits Sandridge Golf Club, where the new clubhouse that broke ground in June 2025 is finally close to done. A short drive away sits Indian River Mall, where demolition crews only started tearing down the east wing two months ago, in June 2026. Both places are calling themselves a renovation this year. Only one of them is actually finishing one.
That gap is worth understanding if you live here, because it changes what you can expect this fall versus what you'll still be waiting on well into 2027, and it says something about why public projects and private redevelopment move at such different speeds even when they sit four miles apart.
A Clubhouse Built on Steady Money
Sandridge is the public course several Vero Beach communities lean on for league play, and Waterway Village is named specifically among them. The county-owned facility has long hosted organized men's, women's, and couples' leagues for Sea Oaks, Marbrisa, Village Green, and The Lakes at Waterway Village, along with a steady stream of outside tee-time reservations that has let the club grow its net revenue every year and remain one of the few public courses in Florida that actually turns a profit.
That financial footing is why the Indian River County Commission could vote unanimously last year to award an $11.2 million construction contract for a new 22,000-square-foot clubhouse, with another $1.8 million set aside for furnishings, fixtures, and kitchen equipment. The new building, going up just west of the current one, will overlook the 10th and 18th holes of the Lakes course and include a pro shop, a restaurant with a full-service kitchen and bar, banquet rooms that can seat 200 guests, and a landscaped event lawn built to hold up to 250 more. The parking lot is being expanded from 85 spaces to 204 to handle it.
Construction started in June 2025, and the county's own materials put completion anywhere between August and September 2026, which means as of this writing the doors are either already open or weeks away from it. Golf Director Bela Nagy, who has worked at Sandridge for three decades and pushed for this rebuild for six years, called it "a major investment in the future of our community and in those who enjoy our club year-round." The old clubhouse stays in service until the new one opens, then gets demolished and turned into a cart-staging area.
A Mall Rebuild That's Only Just Started
Indian River Mall is a different kind of project, because it isn't being funded by a healthy revenue stream. It's being rebuilt by a private developer who bought a struggling property near the bottom of its value. DTS Properties II purchased the mall in May 2024 for $14.8 million, barely above the roughly $14.86 million assessed value it had fallen to in 2023, its lowest recorded figure since Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. opened the mall thirty years ago in 1996.
One Investment Group, working with DTS on the redevelopment, closed the mall's east wing and began demolishing the former Macy's location in June 2026. The former Sears space, the old RJ Gator's, and the east side of the main entrance corridor are all coming down too, clearing the way for new apartments, retail, restaurants, and an entertainment hub. The plan calls for roughly 250,000 square feet of new outdoor shopping space spread across five buildings, plus a drive-through restaurant. Sprouts Farmers Market is the one confirmed anchor tenant so far. Even small tenants are already feeling the disruption: Rita's Italian Ice closed its food-court location on March 1, 2026, after the mall needed the space to reroute restroom access during construction.
"We have a lot of exciting things going on with the mall," said Joseph Scarfone, the project's broker with One Investment Group. "I think a lot of people are going to be happy."
They will be, eventually. The developers are projecting completion sometime in late 2027, which is more than a year past when Sandridge expects to hand golfers their keys to a finished building. The west wing, including JCPenney, Dillard's, AMC Theatres, and Casa Amigos, is staying open through construction, and the food court is slated for its own renovation rather than demolition, so there's no full closure to plan around. But anyone picturing a quick refresh should recalibrate. This is a multi-year teardown and rebuild, not a facelift.
Here's how the two timelines actually line up:
| Project | Started | Expected finish | What's still open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandridge Golf Club clubhouse | June 2025 | August–September 2026 | Existing clubhouse operates until the new one opens |
| Indian River Mall east wing | June 2026 | Late 2027 | JCPenney, Dillard's, AMC Theatres, and Casa Amigos in the west wing |
Why the Same Word Means Two Different Waits
Both projects get called a renovation, but one is a public agency finishing a building it already budgeted and contracted for on a fixed timeline, funded by a course that's been profitable for years. The other is a private developer clearing a distressed asset one wing at a time, leasing it back out building by building, and betting that shoppers will still be interested by the time it's finished. That difference in financial structure, not the size of the project, is what explains why golfers get their new building back within a season while shoppers are looking at a wait measured in years.
You Don't Have to Wait on Either One to Eat Well
The good news is that the local restaurant scene hasn't been sitting around waiting on the mall's food court to reopen. Indian River County saw more than 11 new restaurants open in the six months leading into February 2026, and several of the standouts are already running elsewhere in the county.
Rowdy Rooster took over the old Patio building, a space tied to Waldo Sexton's distinctive architecture, and turned it into a country western bar and restaurant with live entertainment, line dancing, and trivia nights, built by four family members who wanted to do something different with a building they'd loved for years. Giving Tree Coffee Company opened after owner Rich Nelson spent two decades in Brazil and came home wanting a gathering spot, and the café's wood counters were built by an old friend's wood shop as a nod to its history. The Oslo Cafe moved into the former Fire & Wine space off Oslo Road and 27th Avenue as a breakfast and lunch spot for South Vero. And Surf Subs brought Northeast deli culture to the area courtesy of Mike and Dina Iovine, who spent years running Italian pizzerias in New Jersey before their son-in-law Jack MacDonald and daughter Ariella helped them build a new concept instead of fully retiring.
None of these depend on the mall finishing anything. They're already open, already staffed, and already part of the rotation for anyone tired of the same three drive-through options.
The Season Ahead
If you're in Waterway Village, the practical version of all this is simple. Golf season resumes with a finished clubhouse this year, built on money the course itself generated. The mall's rebuild is a longer project with a later payoff, and the smart move is to stop checking on it every few months and instead try what's already opened elsewhere in the county. Two renovations, two very different clocks, and only one of them is worth waiting on.
Team Provancher tracks these local shifts closely because they shape daily life in every micro-market we work in, from clubhouse openings to what's replacing a shuttered storefront. If the changes near Waterway Village have you curious what they mean for your own home's value this season, Team Provancher's instant home valuation tool is a quick way to find out.
