FORT PIERCE — Scooping up one of the last remaining pieces of waterfront land in downtown Fort Pierce and setting a new precedent, a Palm Beach developer reportedly has plans to transform the vacant piece of property into high-end multifamily, retail and office space.

Ivan Chosnek, president of IMC Communities Inc. of North Palm Beach and owner of Inlet Fisheries, bought the one-acre lot fronting Melody Lane — directly behind the old Fort Pierce Hotel Building — for a reputed $4 million on Christmas Eve.

Scott Calhoun, investment property specialist with Hoyt C. Murphy Realtors Inc., sold the property to Chosnek a year after the initial listing and, after two previous contracts, fell through.

The property originally listed for $4 million, was raised to $5.2 million and then sold for the $4 million.

"When I put it on the market a year ago for $4 million, everyone said, 'You're crazy. You'll never get that much for one acre,' " Calhoun said, adding that waterfront property a year ago was selling for 35 percent below the value of what it is today.

"This is a new precedent on this type of product," Calhoun said. "Bernie Kosar bought Harbortown Marina for $34 million for 14 acres. Now that's $4 million an acre. It's worth $56 million, and that doesn't include the marina."

Before this sale, everything was selling for $2.6 million an acre on the water for this type of density, Calhoun said. Catalfumo Construction Ltd., developers of the proposed $50 million downtown Marina Square, recently paid the city $5.1 million for about two acres on the southeast corner of Avenue A and Indian River Drive to develop its project.

Chosnek could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Calhoun said Chosnek bought the property — neighboring the proposed mixed-use Renaissance on the River — from Mike Heiser, who is under contract to buy the rundown Days Inn on Seaway Drive, which is set to close on March 3. Calhoun said Heiser plans to bulldoze the building and replace it with a Hilton or other similar hotel.

Because Chosnek's property was the site of the original old Fort Pierce Hotel, it has repairing rights to put docks on the property. Other proposed developments, including Renaissance on the River, Marina Square and the mixed-use One Marina Place, don't have docks, Calhoun said.

"Docks are worth $125,000 to $200,000 depending on the size," he said. "This one you can do 22 slips. So, he could have a small marina."

And when it comes to waterfront property, Calhoun knows his stuff.

"Anything on the water, I have my hands on," he said.

Out of only 24 waterfront parcels left in the county in which more than four units could be built, Calhoun has 22 under contract.

He also has the last remaining downtown waterfront property under contract, a 4.2-acre parcel on Indian River Drive. That piece of property, next to attorney Frank Fee's office, listed at $11 million and is being sold to one of the top three largest developers in the world, Calhoun said.

The Canadian developer wants to build 110 luxury condominiums with 110 boat slips starting from $725,000 to $1.5 million.

Calhoun said the demographics are changing tremendously in Fort Pierce.

"The swing is no longer secondary market for snowbirds," he said. "It's now primary. People are living here and driving to West Palm Beach to work."

Calhoun pointed to the two newest buildings on North Hutchinson Island, Oceanique and Atrium II, as examples. Both developments are building three-bedroom, three-bathroom units.

"The secondary market does not need three bedrooms and three bathrooms," he said, adding that 70 percent to 80 percent of his clients who buy waterfront property are from Palm Beach County.