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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT NEWS
ST. LUCIE COUNTY
Fort Pierce • Port St. Lucie • St. Lucie Village
Tambone facilitates second sale to
AHS Residential for development of
Tradition Center for Commerce in
Port St. Lucie
Earlier this year, the City of Port St. Lucie
contracted with Tambone Companies
as the master developer to market and
expedite the sale and development of 84
acres of land within Tradition Center for
commerce with the goal of spearheading
economic development in the area. In just
four months, Tambone Companies and the
city have signed two land purchase and
sale agreements, the latest one for a 19.84-
acre parcel of land located just south of SW
Discover Way, along Village Parkway.
On Nov. 4, 2019, the City of Port St.
Lucie’s Governmental Finance Corporation
unanimously approved the agreements
with ahs® Residential to develop and
construct multi-family housing consisting
of 372 market rate rental apartments and
ancillary recreational amenities.
AHS Residential specializes in the
development, construction and management
of their own portfolio of high-quality,
multi-family communities. Now that the
purchase and sale has been approved, the
company plans to move forward with its
site planning, with construction expected
to begin second quarter of 2020 and be
completed in 2021.
“To have a commitment from a quality
development company such as ahs®
Residential to invest in Port St. Lucie and
build a high quality residential community
is further testament to the growth potential
of Tradition Center of Commerce,” said
Richard Tambone, president of Tambone.
The Tradition Center for Commerce will
provide development options within Tradition
with more than 10 million square feet
of office, industrial, warehouse, multi-family
residential and retail space. Potential
uses include: manufacturing, distribution,
retail, education, hospitality, warehousing,
corporate, medical, research and development,
and multi-family residential.
For more information or for inquiries
about purchase, please contact Richard
Tambone of Tambone Companies/Tambone
at Tradition at 561.660.5166, visit
tambonetradition.com or follow them
on Facebook.
TCBusiness.com SPONSORED CONTENT 43
The Port St Lucie Business
Accelerator Program began at the
Indian River State College Pruitt Campus
in February of 2019. There were 34 small
businesses enrolled in the course and
22 successfully completed the program.
The Florida Small Business Development
Center at IRSC (FSBDC at IRSC) and the
Corporate and Community Training
Institute at IRSC provide the instruction
and workshops for the program.
The Business Accelerator Program consists
of 12 three-hour training sessions
designed to guide businesses so they
can build a firm foundation for successful
and sustainable operations, have a positive
impact on economic development,
increase opportunities in job creation,
improve business sustainability and enrich
the quality of life for business owners
and the community.
The City of Port St Lucie sponsored
the Business Accelerator Program and
provided $4,500 from the business navigator’s
budget to pay for the course. Due
to the city’s sponsorship, the course participants
only paid a $25 registration fee
for the course. The city’s small business
grant program was incorporated into the
Business Accelerator Program.
Companies that completed the training
were eligible to apply for up to $5,000
for a small business grant. During the
final class of the Business Accelerator Program,
the business owners participated
in a “pitch competition” before a judge’s
panel to request the small business
grant and explain how their business
will benefit from the funding. The total
funding available for the small business
grant program is $50,000, which consists
of $25,000 in CDBG funding and a matching
grant from CenterState Bank in the
amount of $25,000. In order to be eligible
for the CDBG grant funding the business
must meet one of the following criteria:
the business must be located in a low-tomoderate
income census tract, the business
owner must be income certified as
low-to-moderate income, or the business
must employ low-to-moderate income
employees. For those businesses located
outside of the city’s low-to-moderate
income census tracts, the grant provided
by CenterState Bank was used for the
small business grant.
Port St. Lucie City Council leases bio-sciences facility to Cleveland Clinic
Agreement expected to usher in transformational
economic development
In what is expected to become the
foundation for a new pillar of the city’s
economy, a world-renowned health care
leader, Cleveland Clinic, and an Australian
based research company, Vaxine, will
conduct preeminent bio-science research
in Port St. Lucie, under a lease agreement
approved this week.
The Port St. Lucie City Council unanimously
approved a lease with a purchase
option agreement with Cleveland
Clinic Florida to occupy the Florida Center
for Bio-Sciences building in Tradition.
Under the agreement, Cleveland Clinic
was permitted to occupy the building
beginning Nov. 13, 2019.
This agreement allows the city to fulfill
its long-held vision to bring high-wage
research jobs to Port St. Lucie though the
facility that was originally occupied by
the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute,
which closed during the Great Recession.
This is the first time Cleveland Clinic
has chosen a city outside of Cleveland,
Ohio, for a research facility. In addition
to Cleveland Clinic conducting research
in the facility, Australian-based research
company Vaxine would co-occupy the
building. Port St. Lucie would become
Vaxine’s North American headquarters.
Florida International University also is expected
to co-occupy space in the facility.
The agreement allows Cleveland Clinic
to lease the facility at 9801 S.W. Discovery
Way for 15 years. Cleveland Clinic plans to
create a translational vaccine and immunotherapy
institute that will become the
focal point for development of therapies
across the areas of cancer, neuroscience,
infectious disease and allergies. The
goal of the collaboration with Vaxine is
to create 100 jobs above the average
wage over five years. Under the lease
agreement, Cleveland Clinic would pay
$1 a year and the new occupants would
assume full responsibility for all building
maintenance, operating expenses and
the payment of special assessment district
fees and community development
district fees. The proposal would result
in a reduction of $1.5 million in operating
expenses plus property taxes that
are incurred annually by the city. The city
would be responsible for the annual debt
service on the building.
The 15-year proposed lease includes
options to purchase the building for
$14.5 million. In an effort to encourage
the creation of more of high-wage employment
in the building, purchase price
reductions have been included if Cleveland
Clinic reaches certain job-creation
milestones.
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