Convincing Costco to set up shop in Tradition is the first new assignment the Port St. Lucie City Council gave its retail and restaurant consultant.
The second is finding an entrepreneur to develop, lease and operate a restaurant on the Riverwalk Boardwalk in the park under construction on Westmoreland Boulevard. After that, the Retail Strategies consulting firm of Birmingham, Ala., can help attract new restaurants and retailers to the community redevelopment areas in Tradition Commerce Center and City Center.
Retail Strategies can also help city economic development officials network with national retail developers at the International Council of Shopping Center ReCon on May 19-22 in Las Vegas.
The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to pay Retail Strategies $30,000 this year to continue guiding the city’s efforts to attract the stores and restaurants residents want.
“For me, what victory looks like is getting one of those coveted retailers and some of those restaurants that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,” said Mayor Greg Oravec, “getting us over the hump on a really desired business, whether it be Costco, or Too-Jays, or something that wasn’t already in the works.”
“We’re not ruling out Costco,” Oravec told Clay Craft, a portfolio director with Retail Strategies. “That’s going to be one of your first calls.”
Costco has been looking for a site in neighboring Martin County since 2014, but has spurned Port St. Lucie’s advances.
Craft told the council he is currently trying to convince 10 businesses to set up shop in Port St. Lucie and expects several to do so in the next year or two.
“Retailers and national restaurants take a couple of years to make a decision,” Craft told the council.
“Year 2 and Year 3, that’s really when we start seeing the success.”
It took nine months to study the city’s commercial base and produce marketing literature and web pages, Craft said. Now he’s ramping up the recruiting.
The Riverwalk restaurant project is “certainly something we’re certainly willing to sink our teeth into and come up with a study that gives a determination of what type of restaurant would fit here,” Craft said. He could also try to recruit a restaurant chain to the site.
Retail Strategies may be able to provide a new tenant for the Publix store at the Shoppes at St. Lucie West that is expected to be replaced next summer, Craft said.
Port St. Lucie has lots of commercial land ready for development, including the Tradition Commerce Center and City Center, Oravec said.
“Land is not a problem,” Oravec said. “As far as sites go, if we can’t market 12 million square feet in (Tradition) or City Center, I’m going to throw myself out the window.”
