DEVELOPMENT
ST. LUCIE COUNTY UNDERGOING TREMENDOUS
BUILDING BOOM ALONG COMMERCIAL CORRIDORS
6
TCBusiness.com
SANSONE GROUP
Legacy Park at Tradition is becoming increasingly popular as a site for large logistics center and distribution depots. It sits at the southern end of the Tradition
Jobs Corridor and has easy access to I-95 via the Becker Road interchange shown in the foreground.
Plentiful land for large-footprint distribution
facilities is powering the growth
Stop at almost any Interstate 95 interchange
in St. Lucie County and listen
carefully. That rumbling in the background
isn’t traffic noise, it’s a rapidly intensifying
torrent of industrial and commercial development
coming down the pike.
The world has finally discovered St.
Lucie County’s wide-open spaces for business
parks. Easy access along I-95 to South
Florida and an abundance of affordable
land for large-footprint commercial buildings
has led out-of-town developers to
flock to the region.
The epicenter of this activity is the Tradition
Jobs Corridor in south county, but,
as Economic Development Council of St.
Lucie County president Pete Tesch noted,
almost any interchange in the county
between Fort Pierce and Becker Road has
or will have its share of large-scale commercial
developments in the near future.
Many of these will exceed 1 million square
feet, and are likely both to improve the tax
base and offer hundreds of new goodpaying
jobs.
A recent council report listed five major
commercial real estate companies with
pending or active interest in developing
commerce parks. These span the distance
between The Treasure Coast Research Park
off Kings Highway in the north down to
Becker Road in the south.
GETTING NOTICED
The county lies within a three-hour drive
of 70 percent of Florida and has significantly
lower labor and land costs than
anywhere else in southeast Florida, the
report noted.
“Yes, it’s our time,” Tesch agreed. “Prominent
national developers certainly are
becoming more aware of us.”
One of those is the Sansone Group, a St.
Louis, Missouri, real estate company that
recently announced two prominent commercial
clients in its Legacy Park commercial
center at Tradition. The commerce park
will eventually house more than 5 million
square feet of commercial space, according
to Jeff Greenwalt of Sansone.
Already under construction is a
245,000-square-foot regional distribution
and logistics center for FedEx. Coming
soon is a 500,000-square foot regional >>
BY ANTHONY WESTBURY
/TCBusiness.com
