The city of Port St Lucie is a large suburban community with a diverse population and an average age of 40. Port St. Lucie located along two major north-south corridors that connect south Florida with central Florida. Port St. Lucie is located within Florida’s Treasure Coast along the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach and half way between Miami and Orlando. The city is the state’s eighth largest city with a 2017 population of 189,344. The metropolitan statistical area is approximately 465,000 residents which includes St. Lucie and Martin counties.

Panel Assignment

The city of Port St. Lucie asked the panel to develop a Master Plan for the Southern Grove city owned parcels or Study Area. The intention was for the panel to provide the city of Port St. Lucie with a vision, goals and a strategy for the successful development of the study area as an employment center. The intention of the development is to both address the debt concerns on the site as well as provide well paid job opportunities.

Based on briefing materials provided by the sponsor, interviews with key stakeholders, and panel developed a conceptual Master Plan and development strategies for the study area. The plan focuses on creating jobs and increasing the quality of life for Port St. Lucie.

The panel’s key recommendations include:

• Port St. Lucie is a healthy and has great potential as a city with jobs for its residents.
• The number one goal of the city should be to provide a mechanism for job creation and a stronger community.
• Planning will be required before action is taken to ensure a result that continues to reap the values of your people, your location, and your property.
• A disciplined approach to developing the remaining areas of Port St. Lucie is paramount to achieve the stated goal of job creation and debt mitigation.
• There is not a quick solution, but the panel is confident the long-term value contribution of the study area—both economic and lifestyle.

The panel believes that the priorities should be the planned development of the community first and the retirement of the past debt second.