PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 City Council members unanimously approved an operating agreement with the United Soccer League for the construction and maintenance of a 6,000-seat stadium at Walton & One during a special Nov. 4 meeting, after at least 20 members of the public spoke out both in support and opposition of the proposal.<\/p>\n
This was the second reading of the ordinance publicly debated and unanimously approved by the Council on Oct. 20 after a series of meetings with the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County and USL representatives on the potential addition to city-owned property near the southeast corner of U.S. 1 and Walton Road. Most residents in opposition cried foul over those meetings because the actual applicants and their proposal were not initially revealed to the public due to a Florida statute on economic development. Community Redevelopment Agency Director Jennifer Davis began the latest meeting with a video clip of a recent PSL on the Mic edition in which she discussed the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we get into this first agenda item, we\u2019d like to reiterate that General Fund dollars are not going to be used for the stadium project or to reimburse the operator or the developer,\u201d she said. \u201cThe funding would be coming from the CRA increment funding revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis then turned the mic over to Tampa-based USL Deputy CEO Justin Papadakis.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s a really exciting day for USL because it is the next chapter in a vision we had back in 2008,\u201d he said. \u201cThat vision was radical at the time but pretty simple. The idea was, what if we broke out of the major\/minor league construct that existed in American sports like baseball? What if we could use soccer in our stadiums as the anchor for the most important thing, which is investment in our communities? Port St. Lucie is going to be part of the next class of markets we\u2019re bringing those elements to. We feel grateful and excited that we can be part of this transformational development.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Lucie County School District Superintendent Jonathan Prince followed him to the podium as was one of a handful of EDC Board members present that evening to lobby for approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students who went to Port St. Lucie High School in the Building Construction Program are going to build that stadium,\u201d he said. \u201cOur biggest initiative this year is Classrooms to Careers, which is creating a pipeline to send our graduates directly into the local workforce economy. I do see opportunity with this stadium as an extension of our program [and] for internships with a professional soccer club.\u201d<\/p>\n
EDC President Pete Tesch then described the economic impact of the proposed stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith new construction, we anticipate a one-time impact of 557 jobs and an output of $79 million,\u201d he said. \u201cThe economic output includes economic investment, jobs, income, consumer spending and the direct, indirect and induced value added. The new jobs for the reoccurring impact are 232, [while] indirect are 148 and induced 81 for a total of 461 jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis subsequently wrapped up her presentation with a repeated emphasis on the city\u2019s freedom from financial liability built into the operating and funding agreements and the use of the CRA\u2019s Tax Increment Financing to help reimburse the developer for up to one half of the estimated $55 million stadium construction cost. Those TIF funds come from taxes on the CRA property itself, and the annual reimbursements would be subject to City Council approval. The contract gives Ebenezer Stadium Construction a 50-year lease with an option to renew and\/or purchase the property beneath the stadium outright. Davis pointed to a comparison chart of how the city\u2019s agreement with the USL was different than those of the failed development projects many years ago that left the city footing the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, the city issued debt for some of these projects,\u201d she said. \u201cIn this instance, the developer is funding the entire cost up front. In past projects, there was no security if the project failed; in this deal, the developer must post a bond of 120 percent of the project value to ensure the project is completed. In deals past, it was funded with general taxpayer dollars; this project would be reimbursed with TIF revenue from the CRA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because so much of the opposition \u2013 spurred on by Trent Ackleson and his 2,000-plus signatures of opposing residents \u2013 accused the Council of not being transparent, Mayor Shannon Martin first held a question and answer session with Davis on the aforementioned state economic development process.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlorida Statute 288.075 allows projects to be brought to a municipality under a confidentiality provision,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis gives both the developer and the municipality an opportunity to review the project without it coming out to the public and seeing if it\u2019s a good fit. A corporation may be looking at several cities around the state, and they don\u2019t want their information public because they\u2019re trying to figure out where they want to land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because Ackelson had handed out a document to the Board on Oct. 27 describing a lawsuit against USL #1 by the city of Colorado Springs \u2013 the same tier in which the PSL team would play \u2013 Mayor Martin asked City Attorney Richard Berrios to opine on that issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat case was dismissed in February of this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThe allegations therein weren\u2019t proved in a court of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice-Mayor Jolien Caraballo, in whose district the Walton & One development lies, subsequently posed a clarification question to the CRA director.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a comment tonight, can you put it behind Port St. Lucie High or somewhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cDoes the city have the ability to pick and choose, not just this project, but any project?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a private development and not the city\u2019s development,\u201d Davis answered. \u201cPort St. Lucie High is located outside of the CRA. Even if the city did own property there and wanted to work with the developer, we wouldn\u2019t have the opportunity to provide TIF funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the subsequent public speaker portion of the meeting, a handful of local and South Florida soccer officials addressed the Board. Those included Christopher Corey, who owns the Walton & Hersham Football Academy in Port St. Lucie and serves as Miami\u2019s liaison to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in football [soccer] my entire life,\u201d he said. \u201cOver the last eight years working with FIFA, the thing that opened my eyes the most is the very diverse community in Port St. Lucie. Every single neighborhood [here] \u2013 no matter the background of the people \u2013 they speak this global language of football. I believe it\u2019s the unifier in the world of sports. When you\u2019re doing something like this, it\u2019s not typical infrastructure: This is building legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most of the public in opposition, like Sandhill Crossings homeowner Jennifer Harris and Talwood Lane resident Vincent Rowan, worried about additional noise and traffic, Ackleson himself closed out the public comment with several accusations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Council is celebrating the dismissal of one lawsuit, but that doesn\u2019t change the underlying reality,\u201d he said. \u201cThe USL team in Colorado has already collapsed financially, and the league\u2019s history shows zero profit for any team. This confirms you\u2019re gambling taxpayer money on a failed business model. Second, your own development agreement is a blank check: It waives all responsibility for the team\u2019s financial failure and leaves the taxpayer to cover the inevitable loss. Third, the stadium forces the city to kill the original master plan, sacrificing hundreds of homes and thousands of square feet of guaranteed tax revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman Anthony Bonna was the first Board member to speak afterward, alluding to Rowan\u2019s reference to the six-acre stadium parcel being changed from its original residential and commercial use.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mentioned the change from the initial master plan,\u201d he said. \u201cLeaders take in new information filled with economic realities [and] deal with what\u2019s available in the market, so plans change. As Ms. Davis mentioned, when this new opportunity came to us, we tried to make it work because it seemed like a good deal for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman David Pickett then pointed out that the area in question already sees massive amounts of visitors over short periods of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do four or five big events there a year and most attract 5,000-plus people,\u201d he said. \u201cThe 4th of July, 8,000 to 10,000 people; Fall Fest, 5,000 to 7,000 people; and the Christmas pageant, 10,000-plus people. Our police maintain the traffic. We\u2019re going to do a traffic study and have a mitigation plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her part, Vice-Mayor Caraballo described growing up a block away from the proposed stadium site and how for years she dreamed of a mall coming to the city. Now she sees the stadium as the catalyst to create the area\u2019s long-missing downtown core and the fiscal response to the many inquiries she\u2019s received about why everything was moving out west.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a girl, so give me a mall [and] somewhere to shop,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019d make me happy as pie \u2013 soccer is not my thing. In order to make a dream come true, you have to have people willing to come to the table, to join you in that dream and invest in that future. Unfortunately, I never got the mall, but what I do have are these individuals that believe in our city enough to make the investment [and] hopefully make the dream come true as far as ensuring the downtown area ends up developed. It\u2019s beyond just a soccer stadium; It\u2019s so much more, and I want every single person to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Martin made a closing comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have vetted this completely [and] gone over this with a fine-toothed comb,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd all of the issues related to traffic will be addressed. I know this has been reiterated probably five times, but it keeps coming up, going back to the false statements. The city is not subsidizing in any way, shape or form this stadium or any operational or maintenance costs as it relates to this stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Council then voted unanimously to approve the stadium operating agreement ordinance, as well as a non-relocation agreement with the Ebenezer Partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 City Council members unanimously approved an operating agreement with the United Soccer League for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-41192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","11":"tag-st_lucie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}