RESEARCH
The city’s dream for a world-class bio-tech center gets a
26
BIO’S BACK
new lease on life thanks to Cleveland Clinic deal
TCBusiness.com
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,”
says City Councilman John Carvelli.
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.
ANTHONY INSWASTY PHOTOS
The purchase price could drop, depending
on the number of jobs created. Under the
terms of the agreement, 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
>>
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.
/TCBusiness.com
