Can developer build on a Jupiter waterfront site that has historical significance?

JUPITER — Everything from property rights to an ancient Native American mound and the future of one of the last remaining waterfront parcels in Jupiter is at stake as the town council prepares to hear a developer’s appeal later this month.

Charles Modica, a longtime Hobe Sound resident and developer, bought the Suni Sands mobile-home park near the Jupiter Inlet for $17 million in 2013, with a goal of building a mixed-use development with condominiums, a restaurant and a hotel.

The last Suni Sands residents were evicted in 2016. But plans to develop the property that some experts consider one of the most historically and archaeologically significant sites in South Florida have yet to be approved. The developers have been turned down while seeking a first necessary step.

On Feb. 16, the town of Jupiter's Historic Resources Board denied Modica a certificate to dig on the property, which is required before development can proceed. The town council is expected to hear the developer’s appeal on July 20.

“Even if it is not a burial mound, there is history under there. There is evidence of previous lives under there," said Debi Murray, the historic board’s chair, and chief curator of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.

"It is really part of a bigger complex that other people in the past have moved through, and this is the last bit of it. The board decided this was important enough to save.”

Murray said that if Modica wants a lasting legacy, he should save the property as a historic site.

“His name would last far longer than on a hotel,” Murray said. “It is a shame that an awful lot of it was carved into over the decades. We are trying to preserve what is left and make people aware there were people here before us.”

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The property is home to two archaeological sites eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. They are the Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway, also known as the Celestial Railway, and the 4-acre Suni Sands Shell Midden, rising about 10 feet above the ground.

Archaeologists say there is evidence at the site showing there were people in the area going back 5,000 years, and that the black earth-mound midden is generally thought to be 1,500 years old. It contains artifacts from the indigenous people who lived there.

The railway operated from 1889 to 1895 and took passengers 7.5 miles to the north end of Lake Worth. Nothing remains of the railway, but its 950-foot path runs north-south across the property.

Modica, who developed the nearby Love Street complex of four restaurants and docks with NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath, had agreed to preserve part of the Suni Sands property. He requested to excavate 1.99 acres plus use a half-acre for a road and for tennis and pickle ball courts for a total impact of 2.5 acres of the 4-acre mound.

The town staff and two archaeological consultants recommended allowing 1.29 acres of the 4 acres to be excavated. The remaining 2.78-acre area of the Suni Sands Shell Midden was recommended as a preservation area along with a 10-foot-wide buffer around it.

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The staff said the State Division of Historic Resources stated that capping the mound with a road was not acceptable because of the weight and the impacts that can occur during construction.

But Jupiter’s historic board, after hearing from members of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes who say their ancestors are likely buried there, as well as from archaeologists, historians and area residents, concluded it is impossible to preserve the archaeological resources adequately if any of the 10 acres are developed.

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Artifacts found during 289 excavation tests that the developer’s archaeologist, Bob Carr, conducted from 2014 to 2022 included 4,800 prehistoric ceramic pieces, a rare green stone hammer and an axe head, which are proof of trades to the north, as well as prehistoric skeletal or fossilized human remains, including seven human teeth and a knee cap.

Bryan Davis, a principal planner for Palm Beach County, described the property as “the essence of Jupiter, a most iconic site and as important as the Jupiter Lighthouse.”

He testified that the confluence of the Jupiter Inlet, Loxahatchee River and Indian River, along with the terminus of the Celestial Railway, shaped Jupiter’s history and was responsible for the town’s historic settlement.

Murray said that in the past, Native Americans had no say about what was happening to mounds such as this one, but now they have more political clout.

Robert Rosa of the American Indian Movement and the Florida Indigenous Alliance is among those who spoke at the hearings. He says the mound is a burial site that some want to minimize by saying it is nothing more than a “trash heap.“

“We would not go into Arlington cemetery and see what they buried the World War II heroes with. It is something you just don’t do,” Rosa said. “You let your ancestors remain. We don’t want it tampered with. We don’t want DNA pulled out of the remains.”

Josh Liller, a Historic Resources Board member who works as historian and collections manager for the Loxahatchee River Historical Society, which operates the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, said the Suni Sands mound is one of only three left in Jupiter. The others are in Dubois Park with a pioneer home on it and in front of the lighthouse along the shoreline.

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Florida’s Native Americans created mounds of shell and sand for ceremonial and practical purposes, and they were built on higher ground for the rainy season. The chief would address the tribe from the mound.

“We don’t have very many surviving sites here in southeast Florida. So many were destroyed in the early days of settlement. Preserving one of the remaining ones and having it in context with the other two is a larger story," Liller said.

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"When you stand on top of that mound, you are looking straight at the Indian River. There is very much a visual aspect to it, and understanding why it might have been significant to Native Americans."

Suni Sands is also referred to as the Sperry property. The parcel, on the south shore of the Loxahatchee River between Clemons Street and DuBois Park, was the center of commerce in early Jupiter.

Emily Sperry, wife of William Sperry of S&H Green Stamps fame, bought the property from Edwin S. Holley of the New York Stock Exchange. The home she named “Suni Sands” was built in the late 1890s, according to the Loxahatchee River Historical Society. The house’s staircase remains.

Suni Sands was also a gathering place for residents and visitors who tied up their rowboats and swam and fished. The Seminoles also visited there, and had their photos taken with the Jupiter Lighthouse in the background, just like today.

Modica told the board on Nov. 29 that when he bought Suni Sands out of bankruptcy in 2013, it had 104 mobile home and RV sites that had been there for decades, and he considered keeping it like it was, but instead decided to develop it in a responsible way.

“We hired the best archeologist we could find, Bob Carr, to guide us through this property,” Modica said. “We felt we would be able to develop it and respect the archaeological aspects and open up the site to the public.”

Modica said that the town staff’s recommendations would further restrict how much land could be developed and would prevent the project from being economically viable.

“I come to you now, asking you to consider the historical aspects and the need to open it to the public, with the understanding that if we can’t build something there, there is no way we can move ahead. I don’t want it to come to a standstill. There is nothing left to trade off in terms of land use there,” Modica said.

Modica’s proposal calls for a 125-room hotel, 72 condos and townhomes, 6,439 square feet of retail and 5,650 square feet of restaurants. No development has been approved, and the appeal hearing will address only the denial of the certificate to dig.

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Philippe Jeck, a Juno Beach attorney representing the developer, said that before acquiring the property in 2013, the owners’ team met twice with the town staff to determine the development potential of the property. They learned that development was possible but subject to archaeological review.

“We knew that going in, that archaeological oversight was key to developing it responsibly. That is what he has done,” Jeck told the board on Nov. 29.

“You will not find another developer who will do what Mr. Modica is proposing to do on this site. He wants to develop it as a legacy to the community,” Jeck said, adding that Modica has been approached many times by entities wanting to buy it.

Carr found no burial or ritual sites on the property during the excavations. If any skeletal remains are found, then Florida law will apply, Jeck said.

The town’s archaeologists, Advanced Archaeology and Commonwealth Heritage Group, disagreed, and said that there was evidence of ritual and of the property being a burial ground.

Modica envisions creating a public space along A1A that will celebrate the area’s past life as a center of commerce. It would also include historical signage and preservation of the original estimated path of the Celestial Railroad, and a small museum space to display any artifacts discovered during construction.

Jeck said a development known as Jupiter Oxbow, approved but not yet under construction along A1A, contains middens. In addition, the path of the Celestial Railway once ran through Inlet Waters, a townhouse development just south of Oxbow.

“They had no building restrictions They paved over it and put buildings on it. No certificate to dig was required,” Jeck said of Inlet Waters.

Miccosukee president, Joe Namath's daughter, want mound preserved

Native Americans including Betty Osceola, president of the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, view the Suni Sands mound as sacred. The tribe respects their ancestors’ graves and said they should not be disturbed or excavated. The tribes’ teachings warn that disturbing ancestors’ resting places would bring illness and bad luck from the ancestors' spirits.

Jessica Namath, Joe Namath’s daughter, is a Tequesta resident who serves as the American Indian chair for the Daughters of the American Revolution, Jupiter Lighthouse Chapter. She said there is great value in preserving the mound and teaching people about the past.

“People could come from all over to see the existing mound and learn about the culture. There is so much we don’t know,” Namath said. “We have the best piece of an incredible puzzle, and we are not taking the time to figure it out.”

American Indian Movement’s Rosa agrees.

“Imagine if they left it as it is. People could come visit. They already have hotels in the area. People could come and learn and sit by the waterside, it being a green space and protected. That would be far more beautiful for the town than more people.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Historic board opposes plan for hotel, condos at Jupiter Suni Sands site