Press Releases

Source: Palm Beach PostFebruary 02, 2007

Plans Emerge For Port St. Lucie Shopping Mall

News about the city's first shopping mall - a retail mecca that will exceed Jensen Beach's Treasure Coast Square mall in size - will be unveiled in the next few months, developers of Tradition and city leaders said Thursday.

Planned for the northwest intersection of Becker Road and Interstate 95 in extreme southwest Port St. Lucie, the mall could be a traditional indoor shopping complex or part outdoor center like CityPlace in West Palm Beach, said Alan Karrh, president of Core Communities' commercial division.Because there are no roads yet leading to the newly annexed tract, Karrh said the complex may not open to customers until 2011. Construction likely won't begin until the city builds a planned interchange at Becker and I-95, a project that will get under way this year. Core also will extend Village Parkway south to intersect with the mall.

City Manager Don Cooper told city council members Thursday during the second of a two-day planning retreat that plans for the mall - along with a dozen other commercial projects planned or under construction west of Florida's Turnpike - will transform the mammoth city into three smaller communities, each with its own retail hubs and flavor.

"The avalanche is coming fast," Cooper said.

The city's third Wal-Mart Supercenter is slated to open on Gatlin Boulevard in mid-March, and construction of an adjacent Sam's Club and Home Depot will begin soon after. While Core crafts a concept plan for the city's first mall, workers are busy preparing for a summer opening of another mammoth shopping complex in Tradition across from the town square.

Target, Sports Authority, Pier 1 Imports, Babies R Us, OfficeMax and PetsMart are among the big-box tenants of that complex, making it the third-largest shopping complex in the three-county area, surpassed only by shopping malls in Jensen Beach and Vero Beach.

"Until we get the regional mall, this will sort of serve that role," Karrh said. "We think we'll pull shoppers from Palm City to Fort Pierce and west of the river in Port St. Lucie."

Karrh said Core has chosen a developer for the mall, but he declined to release the name until the concept plan is complete. The developer will choose the mall's tenants, he said.

Although developers are paying most of the cost to build the I-95 interchange at Becker, Cooper warned that the city's taxpayers will be responsible for paying up to $3.5 million yearly for decades to build roads, drainage ponds and utility lines in newly annexed areas southwest of Tradition and I-95. That's because the city owns a 250-acre industrial park in the region that will create up to 8 million square feet of nonresidential space.

"There could be $300 million in infrastructure costs in the southwest annexation area," Cooper warned. "The city will have to pay some of it because we will create demand with our jobs park."

Planning Director Cheryl Friend predicted the city's population will eclipse 370,000 within 20 years, as 30,000 vacant lots east of I-95 are developed and western areas go vertical.

Tradition was the city's fastest-growing neighborhood in 2006, while once-hot St. Lucie West is essentially built out, with 99 percent of its home sites developed 20 years after the community was formed.