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Sell it for no less than 5 million and eliminate the back taxes. $750,000 is a joke. I'm all for giving this disease away if someone will actually do something with it, but this offer is a slap in the face if they're not paying the taxes on it.
The 21 acres have an assessed value of $5.7 million, county property appraiser records show.
The property’s carrying costs for 2018 total more than $2 million, city records show. That includes $1,871,152 in assessments, $135,996 in property taxes and $9,806 in stormwater drainage fees.
If this were your house and someone walked up and offered $750,000 for it.....wouldn't you be pissed off? I would
STUART — Ever since Costco Wholesale in January pulled its proposal for a store on Kanner Highway off the agenda of the Local Planning Agency, city officials are in the dark whether the project will get back on track or be dropped for good.
City planners, who were poised to recommend Costco get the OK for a 154,000-square-foot store just south of Martin County High School, have been in a holding pattern after Costco scrapped a review request for the 29-acre site.
There’s been no formal contact or requests from Costco related to the proposal coming back before city commissioners, city spokesman Ben Hogarth said.
“It is the city’s understanding that if and when Costco is prepared to move forward with that application item, they will notify us at that time,” Hogarth said. “We also do not have an anticipated time frame for this item.”
Also left wondering is David Nehme, a retired Stuart physician who owns a large portion of the Kanner site through his interests in Nehme Holdings LLC and Willoughby Group LLC, listed as property owners in county records.
Nehme owns the northernmost and southernmost parcels — 7.8 and 19.8 acres, respectively — while Palm City businessman Mahmoud Hadid owns 17.2 acres sandwiched in between.
Nehme has been seeking answers for months, he said, after believing a deal had been struck to develop the store, a nine-pump gas station and five freestanding buildings — a restaurant and four retail shops — according to plans submitted last year.
“The city has been very cooperative, very helpful and I’m very disappointed,” Nehme said in an interview. “We are still trying to find out the reason for Costco pulling out of the deal.”
He’s heard nothng directly from Costco representatives but, Nehme suggested, the deal may have soured over extra expenses involved in the land purchase.
Hadid, — a managing member of the Willoughby Group, who has conducted business with Nehme for decades — could not be reached for comment despite attempts by phone and email.
Costco’s representative for the project, New Jersey builder Joe Marino, whose company M&M Realty Partners submitted the development proposal to the city, also couldn’t be reached for comment.
wetlands review of the proposed site started last year by the South Florida Water Management District stalled in November before Costco representatives applied for a required environmental resource permit, according to Wayne Blythe, an environmental sections administrator.
Costco consultants sent water managers a wetlands map, which district staff updated shortly before communications ended, Blythe said.
“This was kind of the first step in the process. They wanted to determine where the wetlands are, then develop a site plan and meet our engineering and environmental criteria and they’ll come back with an application and we’ll review that application … for an environmental resource permit.”
It’s unclear if Costco will ever seek that permit, Blythe said.
“We have no idea what the status is or what their plans are,” he said.
More: Lychee Tree Nursery owners to Stuart planners: Say no to Costco on Kanner
If Costco abandons the Stuart site, it will be the second time the company has altered its plans for building in Martin County.
Since January, 345 people have joined the Facebook group “Say No to Costco on Kanner.”
Another Facebook group, "Martin County Welcomes Costco to Stuart," has attracted 209 members. I JUST JOINED
PORT ST. LUCIE — Construction of the $91 million Crosstown Parkway extension will end two months ahead of schedule, closing the book on one of the city’s most contentious projects.
City officials will mark the event Sept. 28 with a community “block party.” The project wasn't expected to be finished until mid-November.
Crews already have connected the six-lane, divided-highway bridge to U.S. 1 at Village Green Drive. And last week they were installing landscaping and irrigation, lights and handrails, traffic signals and putting grooves in the deck to help with rideability and improve water run-off.
The remaining road work will smooth the connection from the bridge to Village Green Drive and U.S. 1, Project Manager George Denti said.
The U.S. 1 intersection will be widened to accommodate six lanes of traffic and right turns only to southbound U.S. 1, said Denti, who has managed construction of the Indian Street and Jensen Beach bridges, both in Martin County.
The project, first proposed in 1980, will provide the city its third bridge over the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. It will connect to the current terminus of Crosstown Parkway, on the west side of the river, to U.S. 1 at Village Green Drive.
The project will provide the city with both a major east-west corridor to relieve traffic congestion on Port St. Lucie and Prima Vista boulevards, and a new emergency evacuation route to Interstate 95.
The first leg of the Crosstown Parkway — from Tradition Parkway at Interstate 95 to Manth Lane — was built between 2007 and 2009. The bridge, however, was plagued by delays.
Work on the bridge, from Manth Lane to U.S. 1, was to begin January 2016, but was delayed for more than a year when the Conservation Alliance of St. Lucie County and the Indian Riverkeeper challenged its route in federal court, a case they lost in 2017.
Building the bridge included relocating more than 50 gopher tortoises and monitoring the nest of a bald eagle about 1,500 feet south of the bridge, Denti said.
The bridge officially is the Walter B. England III Memorial Bridge, named for the former city engineer who worked for the city for more than 20 years. The City Council named it in his memory in 2009.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — When you go outside, is there a park nearby to enjoy?
As Florida continues to grow, there's more pressure to create, and preserve parkland. Monday, Port St. Lucie city leaders met to discuss balancing their wants with what they can afford.
Amanda Kingrey says she loves the brand new playground equipment at Woodland Trails Park, but she and her kids left the park after just 20 minutes.
“Just because there’s no shading. It’d be nice if there was trees or maybe a splash park to cool off the kids," said Kingrey.
The city has spent the past year crafting a long-range plan for all of its city parks.
A consultant has presented a vision focused on the “power of 10â€â€¦ parks within a 10 minute walk of home, and offering 10 things to do at each destination.
To create new green spaces, and to maintain existing green spaces will cost a lot of green, an estimated $220 million over 10 years.
The city doesn’t have that money right now, so that consultant, Dr. David Barth, and the parks and recreation director went before city council with a proposed $50 million first phase.
“We were trying to come up with what projects could we fund that would respond to those priority needs," said Barth.
Using city resident input, proposals include a $10 million jolt to the Riverwalk park, $20 million towards a regional park in either Tradition or Torino, or perhaps money for both, and another $10 million for land acquisition, as the city is in the midst of another building boom.
“But right now, it’s starting to grow again, and the parks and recreation system is going to have to grow with it," said Port St. Lucie Parks and Recreation Director Sherman Conrad.
The council was disappointed to hear that a BMX/Skate adventure park was not among the top priorities, and asked for that project to be reconsidered.
Final decisions on city park preferences will be made over the summer.
I think it's a great idea. There are some great parks already in the city- and driving by them in the evening and weekends proves how important they are. I really hope the city continues to find ways to finance these parks and expand the park program.
PORT ST. LUCIE — The Cleveland Clinic, which has quickly established a presence across the Treasure Coast, wants to expand that presence by taking over the former Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida facility and establishing a cancer and neuroscience research center here.
A Miami-based medical marijuana-research company also wants to buy the former VGTI property, now called the Florida Center for Bio-Sciences.
That proposal is from JBS Renovations, a startup cannabis-testing laboratory. It is offering $14.5 million to purchase the property.
The Port St. Lucie City Council is to consider both proposals at a meeting 6:30 tonight.
The city staff has recommended the council authorize negotiations with Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. An agreement to take over the city-owned research building would reduce its operating expenses by $1.5 million a year, according to the city.
In January, Cleveland Clinic completed a $500 million takeover of Martin Health System and its three hospitals, and a $250 million takeover of Indian River Medical Center.
Acquisition of the VGTI building would expand its footprint in the Tradition Center for Innovation, joining Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital.
At the same time, Florida International University is in the process of acquiring the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies — next to the VGTI site — for a "specialized-purpose" research center.
In Tradition, Cleveland Clinic would create a translational vaccine and immunotherapy institute that would become the focal point for development of treatments in areas such as cancer, neuroscience, infectious disease and allergies, according to a city news release.
An unnamed international biotech company would share the building with Cleveland Clinic, according to the news release.
Cleveland Clinic proposes creating 100 jobs over the next five years.
The hospital's proposal, however, does not include payments to the city for the building.
The unnamed biotech company would assume full responsibility for building maintenance, operating expenses and payment of special assessments and community-development fees. Cleveland Clinic would be responsible for all costs associated with the recruitment and employment of research scientists, according to the city.
“With Cleveland Clinic’s proposal, the city of Port St. Lucie would fulfill its long-held vision for this facility, to add a new pillar to our economy of high-end research," City Manager Russ Blackburn said in a statement.
"Becoming an established home for Cleveland Clinic’s international health-care brand and the world-renowned Lerner Research Institute would be game-changing for Port St. Lucie and our jobs corridor," he said.
At the same time, Florida International University is in the process of acquiring the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies — next to the VGTI site — for a "specialized-purpose" research center.
FIU Alum here would love seeing a connection with Florida International so close to my new home!
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Almost as quickly as it took for the ceremonial handprints to dry in the concrete for the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute building, they were gone. Tuesday night, Port St. Lucie leaders in a unanimous vote got one step closer to their replacement.
VGTI lasted from 2013 to 2015, left putting the city on the hook for tens of millions of dollars of the debt.
“I can’t wait to see the name on the building get changed,” Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan said on the dais to laughter.
The citywide headache might finally start to feel better after the council voted to enter negotiations with the Cleveland Clinic to develop a vaccine and immunotherapy institute. Another mystery international biotech company will also move in to the building known now as the Florida Center for Bio-Sciences.
"This will hopefully build the foundation to build the terms together to get Cleveland Clinic to locate here and we expect it to generate 100 jobs and number of spinoff companies,” said Councilman John Carvelli in an interview after the vote.
Mayor Gregory Orevec in an interview said, “To bring that brand, to bring their research arm the Lerner Institute, and we can’t even talk about it yet, Project Matthew, there’s another element to this that’s going to make the hair fall right off your head.”
Cleveland Clinic beat out a startup marijuana research company, who had offered $14.5 million for the building. Both would have covered the $1.5 million in operational costs, like keeping the lights on. In the end, an established brand like Cleveland Clinic won out over the riskiness of a startup
So, what’s next: the 60-day window to negotiate the terms is now open. The mayor told me the company known as Project Matthew should become public in about two weeks.
So how do you guys feel about the Audubon project selection and Virgin trains rejection?
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Port St. Lucie discusses where to add new city parks
