Plans are moving forward that could take the City of Port St. Lucie out of the development business – at least in the Tradition Center for Commerce, also known as Southern Grove.
The city found itself holding title to more than 1,200 undeveloped acres south of Tradition proper last month when the land management company walked away. The city is now responsible for covering the costs of taxes and special assessments on the property. The sooner the property moves into private sector hands, the sooner the city can write it off the books.
“There’s substantial and substantive interest in Southern Grove,” said Gregory Oravec, president of the City’s Governmental Finance Corporation board. Oravec is also the city’s mayor. The City Council sits as the GFC’s board of directors.
The board debated several proposals that ranged from a 3-acre outright purchase of property to a hybrid purchase-joint venture partnership, and ultimately decided three of the four proposals had merit.
The board approved negotiating two outright purchases of property, one involving a 20-acre Publix-anchored retail center, and the other being the 3-acre purchase, which is also expected to be retail.
Publix would be located on the northeast corner of Becker Road and Village Parkway. The smaller parcel would be near the intersection of Discovery Way and Village Parkway.
Brandon Structures Inc. presented the Publix project, offering $3 million for the 20-acre parcel. SLC Commercial, representing Capital Brands LLC, has offered $450,000 for its requested 3-acre site.
The hybrid offer was also green-lighted for negotiation. While the board supports the proposed joint venture partnership with Tambone Companies, of Palm Beach Gardens, it rejected the offer price for the 210 acres the company wants to buy.
“I really think they are first class,” Oravec said of Tambone. “I think they’re the right team. I just think right now we have the wrong price.”
While the developers of the Publix and smaller parcels were offering approximately $3.50 per square foot, Tambone offered 58 cents per square foot. Tambone offered $5.2 million for the 210 acres it wants to buy outright.
Oravec said he hopes the city can negotiate a better price for the land purchase.
The fourth offer, which was briefly discussed during the meeting, came from Port St. Lucie resident Mark Gotz, who also is a member of the St. Lucie Fire Board. Gotz’s proposal called for a joint venture partnership with the city for the entire 1,200-plus acres. Profits would be split 49-51, with Gotz receiving the majority share. His plan called for marketing more than 400 acres to a private university and didn’t address the remaining property.
“We should take advantage of having additional interest in the property,” Oravec told his fellow board members. He suggested they move forward with negotiating with Tambone and exclude the Publix and 3-acre parcels as well as two other sites earmarked for two incoming economic development projects.
“It seems like a no-brainer,” Oravec said of negotiating a purchase and sale agreement for the Publix parcel, as well as for the smaller site. “We’re making the most of the situation … We’re selling property straight up.”
“It’s nice to have this problem that we have multiple offers kind of tripping over each other,” board member John Carvelli said.
City staff was directed to enter into negotiations with all three entities and bring back the respective purchase and sale agreements as soon as possible. From there, the city will draft ordinances to convey the properties to the buyers once the agreements are signed. The sales won’t be final until the approval of the second reading of the ordinances.
