Pulte Homes is planting a flag in Fort Pierce, scooping up roughly 50 acres off South Jenkins Road for a new neighborhood dubbed Vela Cove, with about 239 single-family homes targeting buyers who are feeling squeezed out of Miami-Dade and Broward. The pitch: compact three-to-five-bedroom houses, resort-style perks, and starting prices that come in lower than many coastal enclaves. It is Pulte’s first Fort Pierce project and a clear sign that national builders are marching north along the Treasure Coast in search of cheaper dirt.
What Pulte is building
According to Pulte, Vela Cove will offer 239 homesites wrapped around a resort-style pool with cabanas, linear parks, and a tot lot, plus built-in services like lawn care and internet. The community sits just east of Jenkins Road off Okeechobee Road, with marketing materials flagging a "coming early 2027" buildout and inviting would-be buyers to join a VIP interest list. The setup fits the value-focused product line Pulte has been rolling out across its Southeast Florida projects.
Rezoning and local approvals
The 50-acre tract at 2721 South Jenkins Road was converted from general commercial to a planned residential development under master-plan application PD2024-00007, according to city planning records. Fort Pierce Planning Board documents and an October 2025 public hearing spell out conditions tied to the green light, including stormwater easements, a school-bus-stop relocation, and cross-access agreements with neighboring parcels, and they show Cornerstone Fort Pierce Development LLC teaming with Pulte on the paperwork. Those public records cleared key entitlement hurdles before the builder closed on the land, as shown in City of Fort Pierce planning board materials.
Price, floorplans and timing
Pulte paid $16.3 million for the site, which works out to roughly $326,000 per acre, and plans approximately 239 homes with floorplans between 1,300 and 1,900 square feet. The designs run three to five bedrooms, generally with two baths and two-car garages. Local coverage says list prices at Vela Cove are expected to start under about $450,000 and stretch into the high $500,000s, which places the neighborhood well below many South Florida coastal markets. Land work is slated to kick off this summer, with sales scheduled to start early next year, as reported by The Real Deal.
Why the Treasure Coast?
"The predominant trend is people moving up from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach," Brent Baker, president of PulteGroup’s Southeast Florida division, told The Real Deal. Builders see a gap between pricey coastal metros and inland counties along I-95, and Vela Cove is designed to catch buyers who want regional proximity without the same sticker shock. The strategy tracks with other national developers who are pushing new inventory farther up the coast as demand shifts.
Market context for buyers
The math is not subtle. Housing data from Redfin show St. Lucie County’s median sale price hovering near $379,000 as of April 2026, while statewide Redfin figures put Miami-Dade and Boca Raton significantly higher. That spread helps explain why some buyers are willing to accept a longer drive in exchange for a smaller mortgage. For house hunters and agents tracking the Treasure Coast, Vela Cove looks like a textbook new-build value play: smaller footprints, bundled amenities, and lower entry prices, tied closely to regional demand trends reflected in Redfin’s county and statewide snapshots.
What’s next
Pulte has opened a VIP interest list and its Southeast Florida division says it is still hunting for land across Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Broward counties, so Vela Cove may be the first of several similar moves. Infrastructure work and initial grading are expected to get underway this summer, with model homes and active sales on deck for 2027. Prospective buyers can sign up with Pulte for updates or keep an eye on county permitting and plat filings. The Fort Pierce project will effectively test whether relatively bargain-priced new construction can pull South Florida buyers north without asking them to give up too much on commuting or amenities.
