The deal isn’a of Port St. Lucie expects to receive a $3 million grant to construct a “loop road” and utilities in the Tradition Commerce Park that will help facilitate City Electric Supply’s relocation and open up six additional parcels for future development. All the city needs to do is pony up $1 million from its Tradition Economic Development fund, which was established with money from developers in the area.
“Tonight we have a historic event in the City of Port St. Lucie,” said Elijah Wooten, a business navigator, Monday evening during his presentation to the Port St. Lucie City Council.
The so-called loop road will provide access to 100 acres in the Tradition Commerce Park, which is located along the west side of Interstate 95 south of Tradition Parkway. The road would connect between SW Discovery Way and Village Parkway Drive.
According to the plans, the grant would fund more than 2,800 linear feet of roadway as well as the installation of utilities. “There should be no cost to the city,” according to documents pertaining to the project.
The Port St. Lucie City Council unanimously approved the job growth grant fund agreement with both the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and the Florida Department of Transportation.
Gov. Rick Scott still needs to sign off on the grant agreement, Wooten said, noting, “We are in the approval process.”
The state has $85 million for infrastructure improvements and job training programs that is available via grants. More than 400 applications filed for the grants – seeking more than $85 million total, according to Wooten.
The grants are meant to be tied to geographic areas rather than to specific businesses. While the loop road would benefit City Electric Supply, it would also benefit the northern region of the Tradition Commerce Park, Wooten explained.
“In some ways, I feel like the city’s economic development efforts are haunted by some spectacular failures – Digital Domain and VGTI,” Mayor Gregory Oravec said. “And, unfortunately, it still colors perception, impacts people’s perception of their community and future prospects. And I think that’s a shame.”
Oravec said that the City Council has since changed its rules to keep such disastrous projects from happening again.
“City Electric Supply is antithesis” to those projects, he said, explaining that Port St. Lucie doesn’t grant the promised incentives until City Electric Supply proves the goods.
The local company currently operates out of a 200,000-square-foot, five-building campus near First Data Field in St. Lucie West with 222 employees.
The relocation to the Tradition Center for Commerce will allow City Electric Supply to double its building space to 400,000 square feet and hire nearly 50 more employees.
The company plans to invest approximately $38 million in capital to establish the new location.
The state grant of $3 million is “really kicking off the jobs corridor for real,” Oravec said. “Good things are happening.”
