COMMUNITY
“Investing in these types of
places is helping bring light
to the fact that we are one
community and have a lot to
offer our residents and visitors.”
along the river and a large waterfront restaurant in the planning
and construction phases. Once completed, officials aim to
bring in the crowd numbers seen at annual events in Tradition
and City Center.
Most recently, the city council approved a special-use exception
for an Urban Air Adventure Park to occupy a space in
Eastport Plaza (across from City Center). The park will feature
trampolines, a ropes course, ninja course, go-carts, virtual reality
simulators and roller coasters. The park will offer a selection
of food, beer and wine.
“Investing in these types of places is helping bring light to the
fact that we are one community and have a lot to offer our residents
and visitors,” Blackburn says. “We have great neighborhoods
and are starting to see people take pride in Port St. Lucie.”
The city is also catching the eyes of large research facilities
with Cleveland Clinic choosing to open a research facility
here, the first time the company has moved a research facility
into a city outside of its home base of Cleveland, Ohio, and
Florida International University working toward acquiring
the 102,887-square-foot former Torrey Pines Institute building
in Tradition.
Bringing research to Port St. Lucie establishes the area as a
hub for research and innovation and is a boost for economic
development in Port St. Lucie’s job sector.
“Because we do not have a central ‘downtown’ where many
cities house large corporations and businesses, more than
17,000 residents commute out of the city each day,” Oravec
says. “These partnerships are one of the ways of working to
have more people be able to work and play here.”
These alliances assist with Tradition’s further development
as a major hub for Port St. Lucie, and city officials are working
on promoting City Center as a main gathering point.
The “We Love Lucie” concert series, which begins in February,
is designed to generate pride in the area. “City Center is a beautiful
venue and so family friendly,” says McCarty. “Our goal is to
market a love for our town and bring everyone together.”
The concert series will feature some big names like Styx and
Little River Band. City Center holds events throughout the
year, bringing in more than 10,000 attendees per event.
The idea behind all of this is to fulfill the need for a “concrete”
downtown. In this forward-thinking city, these central
hubs in various sections of the city seem to be working at
bringing people together.
“A huge milestone was the city’s most recent ribbon cutting
of Crosstown Parkway,” Blackburn says. The multimodal
thoroughfare is created for biking, walking and driving, he
says, and links the eastern and western parts of the community.
“It is the new spine of a corridor for our community that
unites us.” E
12 Port St. Lucie Magazine
— Russ Blackburn, city manager
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