RESEARCH
BIO’S BACK
The city’s dream for a world-class bio-tech center gets
a new lease on life thanks to Cleveland Clinic deal
BY SUSAN BURGESS
A $1.5 million albatross around
the city’s neck is gone, cut loose
by the Cleveland Clinic’s recent
decision to lease the former Vaccine
and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida’s
107,000-square-foot lab building in
Tradition.
“We’re turning a liability into an
asset,” City Councilman John Carvelli
said.
Approved unanimously Nov. 12 by
the Port St. Lucie City Council, the
15-year lease/purchase agreement
with Cleveland Clinic Florida and its
research arm, Lerner Research Institute,
puts an end to the $1.5 million the city
spent annually on building maintenance
and property taxes owed by the
defunct Vaccine and Gene Therapy
Institute of Florida (VGTI).
Cleveland Clinic will take responsibility
for operations and all repairs and
pay $1 a year for the lease, city manager
Russ Blackburn said. Council members
agreed that the lease deal was good —
the priority was obliterating the $1.5
million expense.
The city will continue to pay $3.8
million annually on the $53.8 million
balance of a loan it took out for land,
construction, furniture, fixtures and
equipment to entice VGTI to move to
Port St. Lucie — a practice the council
has resolved to never do again. The
research facility decamped in 2015.
Cleveland Clinic has the option to buy
the VGTI building, which the city was
marketing for the last five years as the
Florida Center for Bio-Sciences, at the
end of the lease for about $14.5 million.
It’s a bargain, Mayor Gregory Oravec
said, because the actual value of the
building at that time would be around
$9.5 million. The purchase price could
drop, depending on the number of jobs
created. Under the terms of the agreement,
20 Port St. Lucie Magazine
ANTHONY INSWASTY PHOTOS
at least 100 jobs must be created
within the first five years, although city
officials said they believe the company
will create more than that.
The jobs must each pay at least 125
percent of the typical Port St. Lucie
wage, or about $48,000. The St. Lucie
County Economic Development
Council (EDC) took a look and determined
that the 100 jobs would generate
about $9 million annually in wages
to employees and in wages to people
hired in businesses that these employees
will use. Looking further, the EDC
suggested that 150 jobs would generate
$13.8 million each year in direct and
indirect wages.
It is the first time Cleveland Clinic
and the Lerner Research Institute have
chosen a city outside of Cleveland for a
research facility, said Rob Lord, president
of Cleveland Clinic Martin Health.
Lerner is one of the nation’s foremost
research organizations of international
>>
Cleveland Clinic is leasing the former Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute lab building from the city, relieving the city of the $1.5 million annual maintenance
cost and breathing new life into Port St. Lucie’s dream of becoming a biotech research center.