Editorial board
Posted October 25, 2009 at 1 a.m.
Martin County�s economy is suffering from a lack of diversity.
Consider: Three industries comprise 51 percent of the county�s economic base: construction/growth (18 percent), retirement (17 percent) and tourism (16 percent), according to a study by James C. Nicholas, professor emeritus at the University of Florida.
The demise of each helps explain, in part, the county�s 11.9 percent unemployment rate.
The housing-construction industry has tanked. Some retirees have relocated to other states or, in the case of snowbirds, have quit coming for �the season.� High fuel and transportation costs are keeping tourists away.
What Martin County needs � desperately � is a broader economic base that includes high-tech and biotech industries. Unfortunately, local officials have little to offer prospective industries because there�s a dearth of suitable, buildable industrial land in Martin County.
�We certainly don�t have the opportunity to bring any kind of economic development here at all,� said Joe Catrambone, president of the Stuart/Martin County Chamber of Commerce. �If someone were to come in and wanted to put in a campus ... and wanted 100 acres, we don�t have anything to offer anyone.�
The proposal by King Ranch and Consolidated Citrus to build an industrial park south of Port St. Lucie�s Tradition could fill this void � and, property owners estimate, create at least 8,000 jobs in the process.
The Sunrise Grove project would be located on 1,782 acres (currently a diseased citrus grove) west of Interstate 95, north of Martin Highway and south of the C-23 Canal in Palm City. Because of the site�s close proximity to I-95, �the opportunity to develop a regional linkage with parallel facilities along the interstate is significant,� said Mitch Hutchcraft, vice president of real estate for Consolidated Citrus.
Imagine Martin County being able to attract and recruit renowned research facilities like those being developed at Tradition in Port St. Lucie and Abacoa in Jupiter.
The proposed Sunrise Grove project, which is outside the urban services boundary, raises several key questions, including:
Would Martin Highway (State Road 714) have to be widened to accommodate additional traffic to and from the site? If so, will steps be taken to protect the tree canopy on Martin Grade?
Will utilities be provided by a package plant or (a better alternative) the city of Port St. Lucie?
If these and a few other concerns can be resolved, the Sunrise Grove project would be worth pursuing.