AROUND THE
REGION
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT NEWS
St. Lucie County will be home to
one of the largest Florida pompano
aquaculture facilities in the world once
Aquaco Farms begins full operations
north of Fort Pierce.
Set on an 8-acre site, Aquaco Farms’
$2.5 million investment will create
six new jobs with an average wage of
$47,000 and will ultimately produce approximately
one million pounds of fresh
Florida pompanos annually.
Joseph Cardenas, the company’s
founder, raised $3.2 million for the first
phase of the privately funded company
and is already planning an expansion.
“My passion for fishing and the outdoors,
combined with my experience
in commercial banking led me to this
great opportunity,” Cardenas said.
Cardenas and his team have been
working to open Aquaco Farms for
two years; creating the design, building
the infrastructure and constructing
the wells. While the prework was time
consuming, county development approvals
went smoothly. “We had really
good luck with the county moving our
project forward,” said Cardenas. “The
county is eager to see this up-and-coming
industry succeed here.”
Aquaco Farms will be able to sustainably
produce one million pounds of
fish a year from just 100 fish caught
in the wild. The process from egg
harvest to fingerling to a marketable
1.25- to 1.5-pound pompano takes nine
months, said Cardenas. The company’s
primary focus will be to wholesale fresh,
ST. LUCIE COUNTY
Fort Pierce • Port St. Lucie • St. Lucie Village
never-frozen pompano for delivery to
the customer within 24- to 36-hours of
harvest.
“You don’t have to love to eat fish to
be excited about Aquaco Farms opening
here in St. Lucie County. The initial
six jobs created in the first phase pay
significantly higher-than-average wages
and we look forward to increased employment
as the second and third phases
of the project come on line,” said Peter
Tesch, president of the Economic Council
of St. Lucie County. “In addition, having a
high-quality source of fresh Florida pompano
from Aquaco takes pressure off the
wild pompano population.”
58 SPONSORED CONTENT TCBusiness.com
(L-R: Dr. Angela Browning, VP of Institutional
Effectiveness; Doug Sherman, Bank of America
Treasure Coast market president, Tammy Matthew,
Bank of America Treasure Coast market manager,
Cindy Bruin, director of Grants Development;
Keri Hughes, Grants Development specialist; Tom
Kindred, Regional Director of the Florida SBDC at
IRSC; Ann Decker, executive director of the IRSC
Foundation)
Bank of America awarded $15,000 in
funding to Indian River State College to
assist the college’s community development
efforts through the Florida SBDC
at IRSC. The bank’s long-time partnership
with the college is part of its larger
commitment to improving communities
by providing support to local institutions.
Indian River State College seeks to transform
the lives of Treasure Coast residents
by offering them a high-quality, affordable
and accessible education.
St. Lucie County reels in new
aquaculture company
Jill Marasa represented EDC/
St. Lucie and its cities at the ICSC
(International Council of Shopping
Centers) trade show in Orlando to
promote retail opportunities. She
will also attend the I.CON East 2019
trade show in New Jersey, which is
focused on the development, operation
and expansion of industrial real
estate. I.CON is the nation’s largest
gathering of industrial real estate
professionals. Richard Tambone, Jill Marasa, St. Lucie EDC, Elijah
Wooten, City of Port St. Lucie
/TCBusiness.com
