PALM BAY, Fla. — During its monthly meeting Thursday, the Palm Bay City Council once again discussed what to do with an area known as The Compound.
Originally, the land with thousands of lots in the southwest part of the city was supposed to be a residential area, but those plans never came through. The property has sat untouched for about 30 years after the developer went bankrupt in the early 1990s.
It’s also a place where criminal activity has occurred over the years, including an incident on Christmas Day in 2022 when two teens were shot and killed, and just recently when police accused a man of killing his girlfriend and disposing her body at the Compound.
The Compound has a complex problem — one that includes the property existing in more than one municipality, multiple lot owners, and a reputation as being an area rife with criminal activity.
The City Council was presented a strategic plan presentation during Thursday's meeting that laid out the challenges they would face if they wanted to move forward with redeveloping the property.
Not far from The Compound is an area of homes in the southwest part of Palm Bay. In a home off Oleny Street, Edward Valentino lives with his family, which includes three grandchildren.
The Compound hasn’t changed much over the years, but Valentino’s street has. When he moved in two years ago, he said he was one of the few homes on the block. Now, he has neighbors in every direction.
“We saw deer walking through here,” Valentino said, pointing out across his driveway. “Matter of fact, one of my mailmen told me he used to hunt deer here with his father when there was nothing here.”
Now there are homes and children in the area — which includes the three grandchildren Valentino is raising and trying to keep away from The Compound. In an attempt to dissuade them from going there, he said he outfitted his garage with anything and everything a kid could want.
“God forbid they get older and want to hang out there,” Valentino said. “Things happen to them back there, you never know, so I think the best thing they can do is build neighborhoods.”
Some ideas presented to the City Council included an industrial or business park on the northeast quadrant of the property, a conservation area with walking trails, and targeted investment in infrastructure in the northeast corridor.
Despite the newly presented ideas, city leaders did not set a concrete timeline for actions to be taken.
Officials said that what makes working in this area even more complex is the fact that there are more than 2,700 different parcel owners. That means if any grand plan were to take shape, it would require complicated land acquisition.