COMMUNITY
Building a Culture
of Community
Back in the late 1950s, the wilderness that is now Port
St. Lucie was founded upon General Development
Corporation’s promotion for an 85x125 lot as “$10
down and $10 a month for 10 years.” Anyone could
live out his dream of retiring in Florida for quite the bargain.
In 1953, Gardner Cowles of Look magazine, bought 8,500
acres of land along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. Envisioning
it as an economical place for retirees from the North, he
platted the land as River Park. To construct homes, he worked
with The Mackle Company, a prominent
Port St. Lucie Magazine 11
Florida home building company,
to build homes in the area.
The merger of five Canadian corporations
led to the rise of General
Development Corporation (GDC),
which then merged with Cowles
and began buying up huge tracts
of Florida ranch land in St. Lucie
County. The company extended Prima
Vista Boulevard from River Park
to the river and built a bridge over
the North Fork to provide access for
development and homebuyers. By
1959, GDC had 250 homes set for
purchase and began referring to the
development as Port St. Lucie.
Across 80 square miles of swamp
and pine trees, GDC paved and
named streets, creating 80,000 lots
for homes. As the city build-out
continued, a central downtown area
was not created. With the low number
of residents prior to the buildout,
a downtown didn’t make sense to developers. There was
not enough of a local economy or industrial and commercial
presence in the area that would have demanded a “brick-andmortar”
downtown.
Although a centralized downtown was not built, GDC
made a point to construct shopping plazas, recreation areas,
church sites and office centers. All of these amenities added to
the value and intrigue of living in Port St. Lucie. Besides the
highly publicized promotional pricing of lots and homes, you
couldn’t beat the close proximity to local waterways — the Indian
River Lagoon, Atlantic Ocean and St. Lucie River — as
well as access to the great outdoors and the possibility of yearround
warm weather.
Over the years, Port St. Lucie has slowly but surely become
a very family-friendly city. Not only that, but Port St. Lucie
prides itself on being “A City for All Ages” and remains as
such today.
As the city has grown over the years, its cityscape has expanded.
There are now fairs, festivals and other events that
the city lacked in its formative years. City officials have made
it a point to create “activity hubs”
and areas throughout the city that
encourage residents to be out and
about. Because of citywide campaigns
to promote events, the interaction
among residents is allowing
a better sense of community to
build.
“Over our city’s 120 square miles,
we are trying to create ‘activity centers,’”
Mayor Greg Oravec says.
“There is a robust one in Saint Lucie
West and Tradition. Now, we are
working on further developing the
ones at Riverwalk and City Center.”
Oravec has developed a sense of
pride in how much Port St. Lucie
has grown and continues to flourish.
“We are at that transition point
to go to the next level where we
are really known for being a place
of work and innovation,” he says.
“Building out the area we call
Southern Grove (west of Tradition)
will provide more retail, entertainment and economic opportunity
for all.”
Port St. Lucie can and will be better with creating and maintaining
multiple gathering places with additional places to
work, shop and play, rather than creating a downtown area,
say Oravec, city manager Russ Blackburn, civic center director
Linda McCarty and Community Redevelopment Area project
manager Jennifer Davis. The four have worked hard to promote
the development of activity hubs around the city.
Currently, Riverwalk, a park area adjacent to Veterans Memorial
Boulevard and Westmoreland, has a 1-mile boardwalk
>>
BY RACHEL CUCCURULLO
Without
a traditional
downtown area,
Port St. Lucie is
developing several
activity centers
to live, work
and play.