By Alexi Howk
Monday, February 8, 2010
PORT ST. LUCIE — Despite not being selected by the Port of Palm Beach as the location for a cargo distribution center, owners of 7,000 acres in western St. Lucie County are moving forward with their own plan.
Landowners Kennedy Groves, Bay Hill Holdings and Pineloch Management/Caruso expect the city to annex their 7,000 acres, between Glades Cutoff and Rangeline roads, by the end of September so they can build an inland port, said Preston Perrone, chief financial officer of Kennedy Holdings LLC.
An inland port is a large transportation, warehousing and distribution hub.
The City Council Monday night agreed to allow the property owners to spread out payments of $436,040 in application fees by April. The applications are for annexing the land into the city and for changing the use of the land from agricultural to industrial.
The property, dubbed the Treasure Coast Intermodal Campus, was one of four sites considered by the Port of Palm Beach in December as a location for an inland port. The Port of Palm Beach commissioners chose sugar giant Florida Crystals’ site in Palm Beach County, and the St. Lucie County property as its second choice.
Palm Beach’s inland port would serve as an off-site expansion of South Florida’s three crowded seaports.
Environmentalists said they intend to fight the proposal on the Florida Crystals site over concerns it could hurt plans to restore the Everglades. Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Administrative Affairs and Palm Beach County are in a legal battle over the county’s decision to change the land-use designation of the Florida Crystals site, which the state argues is against Florida law.
While the legal battle could take years to resolve, Perrone said he and his partners plan to move forward with the same concept, but scaled back, with or without the Port of Palm Beach’s involvement.
“Sometimes it’s best to come in second,” Perrone said. “It’s given us more time to do our planning and arrange our financing. We think we will eventually end up with the port, but anything can happen. Just the logistics in general. There’s only one road going through there and we have I-95, the turnpike and rail. To get to their property, you have to go by our property.”
Perrone said the Treasure Coast Intermodal Campus would create the same amount of jobs, 20,000, as Palm Beach’s proposal, but jobs would be created at a much slower pace. The project would also generate millions of dollars in tax revenue.
Of the 7,000 acres, 4,777 are developable, excluding the major wetlands, lakes, and minable land on the property. A large portion of the land is mined for aggregate, Perrone said.
He said his group is talking with freight transfer stations in Jacksonville and Tampa. He expects to have the inland port operational by 2014, the timeframe slated to complete the expansion of the Panama Canal, which will prompt additional cargo.
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