BUSINESS
Tradition, a community and commercial area west of the
interstate and south of St. Lucie West, is within a larger western
Port St. Lucie Magazine 21
area of Port St. Lucie called Southern Grove.
That’s all good news Mayor Gregory Oravec says, considering
the city’s past history. It originally was planned by its
creator, General Development Corp., to be 80,000 quarter-acre
residential lots with almost no commercial property. Instead
of a city full of retirees that GDC marketed to, it rapidly became
a place where families with kids could afford to buy a
home. But they had to work elsewhere. And so, Port St. Lucie
became known as a bedroom community where people lived,
but didn’t work there. It was the city with no downtown.
“We always have to be aware of our history, where we
started from,” Oravec says. “We’ve had to retrofit to overcome
being a bedroom community.”
MOVING ON TO NEXT STEP
Retrofitting to allow for businesses involved a number
of tries, including the idea of a city center — which ended
up entangled in legal problems — and the idea of a biotech
center called the Center for Innovation in Tradition, where
two of four businesses failed a few years ago and cost the city
millions of dollars. The other two are doing well — a recently
expanded hospital, Tradition Medical Center that is part of
Martin Health System, and the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular
Studies.
A four-mile jobs corridor in Tradition, which includes both
the Center for Innovation and the Center for Commerce, is
the best retrofit, the city council decided.
“We already have a booming area with research buildings
and a hospital,” Oravec says. “It’s really time to get started >>
ANTHONY INSWASTY
In about a year, City Electric Supply will have a 400,000-square-foot warehouse
and distribution center in this area.
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