Successful redevelopment of the downtown Clematis Street district has set the stage for an ambitious schedule of new construction in 1999, including a long-awaited county convention center and an enormous, mixed-use city center adjacent to the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
Work has begun on the $300 million CityPlace, scheduled to open in October of next year with more than 530,000 square feet of retail space, a 13-screen General Cinema, 100,000 square feet of restaurants and up to 200 residential dwellings, including condos and rentals. Retail space is already 75% committed to tenants that include Crate & Barrel, Borders Books and The Limited. Three 200,000-sq.-ft. office towers and a hotel will open later.
Across the street, construction begins soon on the convention center. The first phase will include 100,000 square feet of exhibit space and 15,000 square feet each for a ballroom and meeting rooms. Demand for convention space in this city of 82,000 has grown dramatically over the last five years, says Warren "Mac" McLaughlin, president and CEO of the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau. With nowhere else to go, one commercial group will be spending the next three years in a 24,000-sq.-ft. tent further east on Okeechobee Boulevard.
Developers and residents are anxious to keep the ball rolling in the absence of Mayor Nancy Graham, who is credited with bringing many of the current projects to fruition. Graham chose not to seek reelection in March. Her successor's main challenge may well be living up to the expectations she set, including creation of a pedestrian-friendly waterfront along Flagler Drive.
Businesses to Watch
Paxson Communications Corp., the nation's largest owner/operator of broadcast TV stations, Jeff Sagansky, CEO. Paxson invested heavily in last summer's successful launch of PAX TV and now plans to bring the family-oriented program brand to the Internet.
WPTV News Channel 5, E.W. Scripps station, Bill Burleigh, CEO. This NBC affiliate will begin construction this year on a $20 million facility that will ready it for digital TV and simultaneous broadcasting to different market zones.
People to Watch
Bob Montgomery, attorney and philanthropist, will spearhead fundraising for the Palm Beach Opera and substantially increase support for the arts with his earnings as lead counselor in the state's campaign against Big Tobacco.
David Frisbie and Andrew Aiken, the managing principals of Renaissance Partners, are responsible for bringing housing and national retailers to historic Clematis Street and leading nearby waterfront development with the construction of three multi-story, mixed-use complexes.
Self-Image
West Palm Beach sees itself as the Manhattan of the Treasure Coast, and derives much of its cultural preeminence from Palm Beach money and leisure time. West Palm's residents regularly turn out in droves downtown after dark to enjoy their newly beautified streetscapes and festivals, and are adamant in their desire not to become the next Fort Lauderdale.
Boca Raton: Room to move
After a seven-year lapse, construction of high-end office space in Boca Raton began to surge in 1998. Rents for existing space had reached nearly $18 per square foot, spurring developers into speculative building. More than half of the 500,000 square feet completed last year is still unleased. And with another 600,000 square feet coming on line this year, the undersupply problem may be lessening, according to Mike Arts, president of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. The Peninsula Executive Center, which accounted for nearly 40% of the new square footage, is now half-leased after drawing Sunbeam Corp. back to town from Delray. And the vacancy rate for first-class space is now over 7%, up from 4% to 5% a few years back.
About the only place left to develop is 540 acres at the Blue Lake project, where there's still a million square feet of unclaimed IBM-vacated space. The largest remaining tract at the research park on the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) campus will be occupied by phase three of the Innovations Center complex, including a pair of affordable, mostly pre-leased multi-tenant office buildings. The 52-acre park, which sat virtually unused until a few years ago, has attracted considerable interest among firms doing everything from brain research to the remanufacture of aircraft engines. The site is also attractive due to its proximity to the university's brainpower. EMI Lab, for instance, uses engineering students and professors to help do electronic emissions testing for IBM and Motorola.
Talks are under way with biomedical companies looking for synergies with the medical school that FAU will build in partnership with the University of Miami. Plans are to add another 17 acres to the park before the end of 1999 and create more than 1,000 jobs in the next three to five years.
Businesses to Watch
Applied Card Systems, credit card servicing company, James Barr, president. Opening just 18 months ago, it is already south Florida's fastest-growing company, with 1,000 employees serving 2 million cardholders.
Tyco International, publicly held conglomerate, L. Dennis Kozlowski, CEO. Earnings from Tyco's ADT electronic security systems are up substantially with the addition of, on average, 60,000 new residential and commercial customers every month, prompting the company to swap out its 40,000-sq.-ft. building for one quadruple that size.
People to Watch
Michael Martin, publisher of the now privately held Boca Raton News, has become a voice for virtually every major community cause.
Vice president of technology for Verio and co-founder of its newly acquired Hiway Technologies, "IBM reject" Scott Adams has led the movement toward interactive Web-site hosting, while sharing his wealth with needy college-bound students.
Self-Image
Boca prizes its snob appeal; executives locate here just for the address, and even some who don't live in the community claim they do. Upscale, trendy and more image-conscious than its neighbors to the south, the city of 69,500 has a self-assurance that has made it resilient to the most brutal corporate downsizing.
Money to Spend
Disposable income for the median household in Boca is $50,646, about one-third higher than Palm Beach County as a whole and well above most other major cities in the state.
Fort Pierce: Looking Smart
Farm interests stand to make gains in stature as well as productivity in Fort Pierce, home to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new Horticultural Laboratory. Together with office space, greenhouses and farms, the $32 million high-tech complex will have more than 240,000 acres at its disposal -- twice the space it occupied in Orlando. Of the 145 new local jobs, 30 are for Ph.D-level scientists. Among the areas of research: developing genetically superior strains of citrus and finding environmentally friendly ways to fumigate tomatoes.
There's an abundance of intellectual resources in this city of 39,000-plus. The new lab shares a block with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Research and Education Center, which now offers degree programs in horticulture and agribusiness. To its north is the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and the Smithsonian Institution's newly dedicated marine research station. To the south is the main campus of Indian River Community College, with a new, 70,000-sq.-ft. health sciences building.
Research and scholastics are no longer the only bright spots. In addition to the recent completion of roadwork on U.S. Highway 1, the city has seen nearly $15 million in redevelopment work over the past three years. This includes functional and scenic upgrades to its downtown marina; a new library, manatee observatory and visitors center; and construction of a fire and police station in a crime-vexed neighborhood. A number of historic buildings have been restored, and virtually every business has a beautified storefront. Result: A dozen waterfront eateries have opened, upper-story office space is filled, and perceptions about the place have made an "amazing turnaround," says Planning Director Ramon Trias.
The future of the Port of Fort Pierce remains uncertain. The city or county may buy 67 acres of port property recently acquired by Bonita Springs-based developer WCI Communities. The port will require roughly $10 million worth of new infrastructure before anything can be built, however. Delay on the seaport, as well as the airport, could hamper future economic development efforts.
Businesses to Watch
Pursuit Boats, manufacturer of high-end boats, Leon Slikkers, CEO. With its sales and employee base growing 35% in 1998 and a repeat performance expected this year, the firm is quickly outgrowing its recently expanded facility.
Orchid Island Juice Company, maker of fresh-squeezed juice, Marygrace Sexton, CEO. The firm, recently chosen as a pilot plant for food-safety research, will be adding up to 40% more employees this year to handle its latest products: peel-less fruit and citrus juice blends.
People to Watch
Ramon Trias, planning director, is the mastermind behind citywide redevelopment efforts, including rebuilding along a drug-infested street and beautification of the downtown waterfront. The efforts are expected to attract $20 million worth of private development investment this year.
Larry Lee Jr., a State Farm agent, organized both a billboard campaign promoting racial harmony and several investment groups that plan to build a multi-use riverfront complex, lease out a newly renovated jazz club and assist with revitalization of the city's blighted northwest area.
Self-Image
Civic pride is emerging in Fort Pierce, which has been plagued by a reputation for crime and decay that city leaders say it no longer deserves. While residents speak highly of neither their public schools nor the hospital, they love their mayor, their college and the opportunity to show off a downtown waterfront they see as the next Key West.
Real Estate
Over the last five years, the occupancy rate of commercial buildings downtown has soared from 25% to 75%.
Vero Beach: Creating Destinations
Bob Brackett admits it's partially nostalgia that caused him to pour millions into redeveloping a small portion of Vero Beach. He moved here from Cincinnati as a teenager in 1947, when downtown was "the place to be." His business, Credit Data Services, is still here. State Road 60 zips right past it. But even before leaders in this city of 17,745 started fussing over ways to redirect traffic back downtown, Brackett was busy making it a more inviting destination.
His restoration of the historic Theatre Plaza and Pueblo Arcade, together with the transformation of the old county courthouse into a bustling executive center, has been a strong draw for workers and shoppers. Pedestrians can find respite at one of 70 cast-iron park benches, which Brackett sells to locals at $850 a pop as memorials to loved ones and once-thriving businesses here.
The facelift is a nice tie-in to the city's vision of its downtown district as a "quaint and walkable environment" that has already won the Florida Main Street community a $10,000 grant from the state Bureau of Historic Preservation. It's also part of a larger pattern of rehabilitation elsewhere in the city that includes a Publix-anchored shopping center and relocation of an automobile sales center to a long-vacant Wal-Mart site.
An ambitious Three Avenues project this year will open up 36,000 acres of space between busy U.S. Highway 1 and Indian River Boulevard. The first signed tenant of the two-story, four-building complex is East City Bistro, sister restaurant to Fort Lauderdale's popular Cafe Maxx, reports Linda Lindsey, the president of Coldwell Banker/Ed Schlitt LC. The concept is to create a sunrise-to-moonlight "destination location" using a blend of retail shops, entertainment centers and professional offices with interconnecting walkways.
Businesses to Watch
First National Bank/Indian River County, C. William Curtis, president and CEO. The county's fastest-growing bank and top residential mortgage lender, its deposits jumped 66% last year.
The New Piper Aircraft Corp., aircraft manufacturer, Charles Suma, CEO. The firm's revenues soared from $55 million in 1994 to an expected $140 million this year [Florida Trend, March 1999]. It has added 600 jobs, and demand is promising for a new turboprop that goes into full production next year.
People to Watch
Jeffrey Susi, new CEO at Indian River Memorial Hospital, is a likable and knowledgeable team player chosen to quell a prolonged public battle over management and control issues at the privately run, publicly funded hospital.
Edwin Massey, popular and visionary president of Indian River Community College, is behind a massive expansion of the Vero Beach campus that will initially include a business development center, culinary arts program and possibly a county library branch.
County Prospects
Palm Beach
Once considered only a place to visit, Palm Beach County is now also a reputable business location. The U.S. Census Bureau ranks it fourth in new-business growth over the last five years. At least 3,200 jobs are being created this year from 40 companies that received assistance from the Business Development Board, says President Larry Pelton. Among the most significant are vitamin-maker Rexall Sundown, expanding by 400 jobs, and online information provider Database Technologies, bringing another 266 as it moves from Broward County. Biggest challenges: Finding technicians for medical manufacturers and suppliers for aerospace firms.
Unusual weather earlier this year has been a mixed blessing for the county's billion-dollar agriculture sector; it hurt the size of citrus fruit, but produced higher sugar cane yields and better vegetables. The land-rich north county area will see more master-planned communities. The most recent to break ground is Abacoa, a 2,000-acre, mixed-use community near a county-built baseball stadium in Jupiter.
Businesses to Watch
With revenues and employment jumping in excess of 25% annually, Palm Beach Gardens-based Implant Innovations is the growth leader in the dental implant business. The acid-etched surface of its most popular product has "revolutionized the industry" by cutting post-implant healing time from six to two months, says Edward Sabin, vice president of finance and administration. The company is even making inroads in Germany.
Martin, St. Lucie
While Martin County pitches its high quality of life when recruiting businesses, fast-growing St. Lucie County dangles millions in incentives. The biggest catch came in January when TV-shopping network QVC announced it would build a 50,000-sq.-ft. call center in Port St. Lucie. The decisive factor: a large labor pool hungry for 1,600 jobs, most paying $7 to $8 an hour. Seasonal unemployment in this citrus-dependent county peaks at over 15% in August. With a shortage of suitable manufacturing facilities and a surplus of retail space, future employment gains will likely come from QVC-like sources. Further south in Stuart, space freed by a downsized Northrop Grumman will welcome in 1999 a boat manufacturer, several aircraft service firms and a Council on Aging office.
Business to Watch
Palm City's Awareness Technology, with annual sales of more than $7 million, has become a standout in the export-dependent medical instrumentation industry. The conservative, debt-free company is now launching a lab chemistry analyzer that offers biochemical and immunoassay testing functions. It plans to expand operations into a new, 30,000-sq.-ft. facility on four acres adjacent to its current manufacturing site within the next two years, says President and CEO Mary Freeman.
Indian River, Okeechobee
The real estate development focus has switched from retail to residential in Indian River County. The latest and largest is Pointe West, a 1,200-unit community going up near the Indian River Mall on State Road 60. OnSite Management's 600-acre project will mimic the traditional neighborhood design of Celebration outside Orlando.
Along with homes selling for on average $140,000, the development will have a commercial town center, school, semi-private golf club and a large equestrian facility with polo grounds doubling as off-season soccer fields.
Okeechobee County is getting its first fish farm. Bass tournaments have returned, which boosts tourism. The Okeechobee Correctional Institute continues to create jobs, and a newly expanded airport will soon have a jet fuel farm and restaurant.
Business to Watch
The county will get a $10 million to $20 million economic boost from MESA Park, a newly opened, multipurpose facility near I-95 in Fellsmere, according to President Jeff Parsons.
The $5 million, five-acre park includes a 10,000-seat motorsports arena -- one of two sites worldwide for sanctioned swamp buggy racing -- and a 3,000-seat amphitheater for everything from country concerts to operas.
Opening weekend at the county's first bona fide attraction drew 20,000, nearly eight times the city's population, and produced speculation that motel-building can't be far behind.