Joe CapozziJupiter Town Council approves terms of agreement with developer Charles Modica at Jan. 20 meeting.
Nearly 5.5 acres of waterfront land with historical and archeological significance would be protected from development under a proposed settlement between the town of Jupiter and developer Charles Modica.
The settlement, after more than two years of mediation, will be considered by the Town Council on Tuesday. If it’s approved, it will set the framework for Modica to develop roughly 4.5 acres of the 10-acre Suni Sands property that he bought in 2013 for about $17 million while preserving the rest. The land has been designated as archeologically significant by the state.
Editor’s note: The Town Council approved the agreement 4-1 on Tuesday with Vice Mayor Ron Delaney voting no.
Under the settlement terms, overseen by mediator Sam Goren, a Fort Lauderdale attorney:
- Modica would deed to the town a 4.07-acre shell midden in the center of the property where the Jeaga and Jobe Native American tribes lived 5,000 years ago.
- The town would pay $10.5 million (an amount both sides say represents a deep discount from its market value) for 1.41 acres in the northwest corner of the site. That is the location of the town’s first commercial hub, the northern terminus of the Celestial Railway at the Jupiter Inlet, where boats delivered passengers and cargo.
- A strip of land 950 feet long and 9.5 feet wide — where the Celestial Railway cut across the property from 1889 until 1895 — would be preserved.
The terms are similar to the restrictions the Town Council ordered in July 2023 when it issued Modica a certificate to dig on 6 acres of the Suni Sands site, a former mobile home park. The main difference with the mediation settlement: the 1.4 acres represent more land in that northwest corner than the town thought it could save in July 2023.
“In all respects, I believe the council may have achieved more than some members thought was possible with the issuance of their order on the certificate to dig in 2023,” Town Attorney Tom Baird told Stet News.
“The town is winding up with more acreage of the overall property, which I just couldn’t imagine to be possible in 2023,” he said.
Mediation started in August 2023 when Modica appealed the council’s July 2023 decision to a special magistrate, arguing that building his development on just 6 acres was not feasible.
His original plans called for a 125-room inn, 72 townhomes and condos and about 12,000 square feet of restaurants and stores.
Even though Modica would have “a little under 5 acres” to build on if the settlement is approved, he still intends to submit plans for some version of that original development, his attorney, Phillipe Jeck, told Stet News.
The 10 acres is zoned residential. A series of zoning and comprehensive plan changes would need to be approved before a development plan can be submitted. If and when the development plan is submitted, the preservation requirements kick in during the review process.
Whatever he builds at Suni Sands, Modica, a Hobe Sound resident, wants it to be his “legacy project” that will protect and preserve the town’s history, Jeck said.
“This is a resident of this area for 40-some years. It means as much to him as it means to any local to have that protected,” Jeck said.
“It’s been 125 years since the public had any access to it. The last time the public was able to go on any of this property was basically when the Celestial Railway was still operating (130 years ago). After that, it turned private.”
The council’s July 2023 decision overrode a March 13 decision by the town’s Historic Resources Board to deny a dig permit and preserve the entire 10.4-acre site. An angry crowd of residents and Native American activists packed that 2023 meeting and booed the council’s decision.
Members of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes have said their ancestors are likely buried at Suni Sands.
In 289 excavation tests conducted by Modica’s archaeologist from 2014 to 2022, historic artifacts were unearthed, including prehistoric ceramic pieces and prehistoric skeletal or fossilized human remains, including seven human teeth.
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. He publishes the Lake Worth Beach Independent on Substack, covering the town where he lives.
