City Manager Russ Blackburn has been on the job about 18 months, so when he addressed the St. Lucie Chamber last year at the Annual City Update, he was fairly new.
“I kinda knew what I was talking about,” he said, addressing the crowd this year. “But this year, we’re living it.”
He touted Port St. Lucie’s continued designation as the “safest large city” in Florida, high marks from citizens as surveyed by a national company, and being “very fortunate to have a great team of bosses and a great team of employees.”
Both sides evaluate the City’s Strategic Plan regularly to determine where the city wants to go and what it needs to do to get there; Blackburn calls it Port St. Lucie’s road map to success.
Overall, the city appears to have pulled out of the Great Recession stronger than ever. Residential building permits are on a record pace based on this time last year. “It’s a vital community,” Blackburn said, noting that much of the residential development has actually been within the city’s established neighborhoods.
With new homes have come new restaurants and businesses vying for customers’ dollars, including a Lucky’s Market, Texas Roadhouse and Chick-fil-A – all of which are either recently opened, under construction, or going through the permitting process.
The city’s growth and continued success hasn’t occurred simply through happenstance, Blackburn said.
“It also takes being prepared,” he said, explaining that the city has done all it can to be welcoming to new business and construction, having hired a so-called business navigator to serve as a point person for anyone seeking to do business in the city.
Among the wins the city has logged since last year, Blackburn counts keeping City Electric Supply in Port St. Lucie. The manufacturer will be relocating from its multi-building campus in St. Lucie West to a twice-the-size facility in the Tradition Center for Commerce to accommodate more than 50 new jobs.
The city, too, is finalizing paperwork to take over more than 1,200 undeveloped acres of Southern Grove, the last of three phases to the overall Tradition development.
“There’s no place like this in South Florida,” Blackburn said of Southern Grove, noting that if the city moves forward with acquiring the property, Port St. Lucie will be able to offer large tracts of land for big-scale development.
“We’re ready” when South Florida builds out, he said.
The city is looking for a joint venture partner to help with the management and marketing of the land and it hopes “to have a couple announcements very soon,” Blackburn said.
Another announcement Blackburn hopes to make – “soon” – has to do with a conditional contract in the works for the City Center development. He hinted that the proposal he’s seen comes from a reputable developer with plans to fulfill the city’s vision for the property.
“It’s very doable,” Blackburn said of getting the property back into the private sector.
The Crosstown Parkway extension continues to move along and is still on track for completion in November 2019.
“We’re going to try to beat that,” he said, adding that the city plans to host a big party to celebrate.