Port St. Lucie has filed defective construction claims against the builder of the $40 million Civic Center in an attempt to recover at least some of the repair costs.
The city notified Suffolk Construction Company, of West Palm Beach, last month about construction defects on the Civic Center clock tower and east-facing and south-facing walls.
Port St. Lucie has already filed suit against Suffolk Construction in state court claiming shoddy construction resulted in water intrusion and premature structural deterioration in the Civic Center parking garage.
The general counsel and president of Suffolk Construction’s southeast division did not respond to questions emailed Friday and telephone messages that were left Friday and Monday.
Despite the problems, the buildings remain structurally sound and safe for public use, said City Manager Russ Blackburn. The city first discovered the construction issues at the Civic Center Parking Garage in May 2014 when decorative foam started falling off the building, records show.
An engineering firm hired by the city to inspect the parking garage and the Civic Center uncovered a long list of suspected construction defects.
Suffolk Construction sent representatives to inspect the Civic Center issues on May 3, records show.
Five days later, the city notified Suffolk Construction about its latest defective construction claims.
“The city contends that the steel embed plates were not covered with enough concrete cover which caused corrosion to the steel and cracking/spalling of the concrete,” Deputy City Attorney Lee Baggett said in the May 8 notice.
“An additional defect is located on an exterior wall of the civic center’s warehouse in which there is an absence of or a failed joint expansion, which has caused the wall and concrete sidewalk around the wall to crack,” Baggett said.
The city filed a complaint in state court Oct. 9 charging Suffolk Construction with breach of contract, breach of implied warranty, building code violations and negligence related to the construction defects.
The city amended the suit on Jan. 31 to add a fraud allegation, claiming Suffolk Construction attempted to conceal construction defects in the parking garage by covering them with cement patch material and paint and pretending they didn’t exist.
The case is pending before Judge Barbara Bronis in the 19th Circuit Court in St. Lucie County.
Port St. Lucie built the 100,000-square foot Civic Center and six-story parking garage in 2008 as the center piece of the redevelopment of the old Village Green Shopping Center. City leaders envisioned the 40-acre City Center at U.S. 1 and Walton Road becoming a downtown entertainment district featuring shops, restaurants, a hotel and apartments.
But public buildings, including a St. Lucie County government office, were the only new facilities constructed under the redevelopment plan.
Vacant lots dominate the grid of oak-tree-lined roads with on-street parking, sidewalks and decorative streetlights in City Center.
A Bealls department store, a Tires Plus automotive service shop and Wells Fargo bank office were the only businesses to survive the redevelopment efforts.
Nearly 21 acres in City Center have been tied up in federal court since 2015 when authorities charged the prior owner with securities violations and seized the land.
