Port St. Lucie hopes to once again market Southern Grove to attract new businesses
PORT ST. LUCIE — Southern Grove seems to be the city’s best-kept secret, but officials hope to change that by marketing building incentives to attract new businesses and jobs to the underdeveloped area.
Assistant City Manager Greg Oravec said that during numerous interviews with community and business leaders to determine how they would like to see the 3,606 acres west of Interstate 95 developed, many of them said the first step is marketing.
“That was huge in the stakeholder interviews,” Oravec said. “Where’s the marketing for this? It’s fallen off the face of the earth the last couple of years. That’s part of the reason we don’t see more out there.”
According to Southern Grove’s Community Redevelopment Plan, the million-dollar marketing campaign by previous Tradition developer Core Communities was the key to success for the master planned community. Highway billboards advertising the lucrative strip of land south of Tradition Parkway promised shopping, homes and high-tech careers.
Then the 2007 recession hit. PSL Acquisitions foreclosed on Tradition’s developer in February and took title of Southern Grove. Marketing campaigns ceased and so did interest in development.
“The development has essentially been on ice for two years or more,” states the redevelopment plan. “We cannot afford to be a secret.”
Oravec said the most cost-effective and simplest ways to recruit clean businesses and attract desired development is to partner with business and property owners in Southern Grove on marketing efforts and provide incentive programs to chip away at the high cost to build.
Future investors are facing almost $10 million in annual assessments on the land because of $156 million in bonds the city issued in 2004 to pay for infrastructure, such as roads and drainage.
According to city documents, the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser calculated Southern Grove, once a $1 billion property, at an estimated market value of $78.2 million and assessed value less than $17 million. The property was upside-down with the total amount of assessments from the infrastructure bonds exceeding the land’s value. City documents show the total amount to be paid in annual installments is more than $300 million.
In August, City Council unanimously voted to designate Southern Grove a Community Redevelopment District to freeze the district’s current total taxable value. As projects are developed, the city hopes property values will rise and generated revenue will go into a trust fund. The fund will help to pay portions of assessments tied to properties.
The plan for the Community Redevelopment Area outlines possible building incentives the overseeing agency, made up of the City Council, can provide to new investors. Incentives include offering loans, cash grants for targeted industries, like biotech, health care and retail, and expedited building permits. According to the plan, the agency will create these programs as trust money becomes available.
Before the economic crisis, plans to build a 1.4 million-square-foot regional mall near Becker Road at the foot of Southern Grove were in the works. Although mall plans stalled and failed, city officials hopes program incentives will resurrect it.
Outlined in the plan is a proposal to help future investors pay portions of its annual special assessments.
Oravec said certain industries, such as developer Simon Malls, could be refunded 50 percent of the proposed mall’s incremental taxes and have the refund applied to assessment fees. He said by providing this incentive it not only helps recruited investors shake off sticker shock, but also helps market Southern Grove.
Incentive programs do not require the agency or the developer to put money up front and are being seen as the tool to lure investors. Once development spurs, increment tax revenue will then accrue to implement future programs and amenities laid out in the redevelopment plan.
“(Incentive programs) doesn’t take any money out of pocket. It’s future money,” Oravec said.
Councilwoman Michelle Berger said the incentive program would serve as bait for new investors and is vital if they want to draw new jobs to the area, which is the ultimate vision for Southern Grove.
Southern Grove, which is being marketed as the Tradition Center for Innovation, the city’s first “best-of-class” employment center, is home to the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute and Homewood Suites hotel.
VGTI Florida employs 65 people and is contracted to have 200 in 2018 as part of a state, city and county $117.8 million incentive package. Homewood Suites employs 25. Torrey Pines employs 107 people.
The area also will house the 90-bed Tradition Medical Center by Martin Health Systems, slated for construction this year, and the Mann Research Center, which owns 22.3 acres. Collectively these businesses are projected to bring in about 28,000 jobs.
To serve the future workforce, residential developers plan to construct apartment buildings and other residential units on 40 acres, as outlined in Southern Grove’s redevelopment plan.
Mayor JoAnn Faiella said these new program incentives also will give area industries a much-needed boost.
“It’ll help the current players, which is the hotel that’s in dire need right now,” Faiella said.
Oravec agreed. He said although the hotel is doing well, building out Southern Grove more would increase its business.
“That hotel needs some action out there. If we ever want a mall or those retail amenities out there we need development,” he said.
Article source: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/jan/27/port-st-lucie-hopes-to-once-again-market-grove/