Port St. Lucie Civic Center

Intended to be a retirement community, the city instead has lured many young families with its quieter pace, affordable housing and easy commute to South Florida.

What the city has lacked, however, is a downtown: somewhere to wander and shop, grab a quick lunch, attend community events and just be.

That may be about to change: The long-awaited Port St. Lucie Civic Center, a $25 million, 100,000-square-foot facility off U.S. 1 and Walton Road, will open Monday with a week of festivities. City officials will hold a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday, and tours will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The civic center, awash in warm tones of butter cream and squash, will have a 30,000-square-foot plaza for concerts and shows, a 2,000-square-foot art gallery off an expansive lobby, a 12,675-square-foot ballroom, a 6,250-square-foot conference hall, a fitness center, gymnasium and on-site catering.

“I don’t think there’s anything like it on the Treasure Coast,” said Vice Mayor Jack Kelly.

The civic center is the beginning of Port St. Lucie’s vision for a downtown on the city’s east side. City officials, who have been planning the facility for about five years, say they envision hotels, shops, restaurants and condos following, providing the suburban community with some of the benefits of a metropolitan area as well as potentially lucrative events and sports tournaments.

“It’s something that the city has sorely needed,” said Mayor Patricia Christensen.

City officials will get their first glimpse of the completed facility this week. They then start a week of festivities with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday.

Festivities will include: tours and a community “meet and greet,” a tree-lighting ceremony, a ticketed gala, the festival of lights, and a holiday arts and crafts event for children. A men’s three-on-three basketball tournament also is planned for the week.

Office manager Pattie Roberts said people are already booking events and buying recreational memberships without having seen the facility.

The Village Square, a large plaza in front of the building, has a stage area, restrooms and an interactive fountain, which city officials plan to use for community events, such as the annual tree-lighting ceremony.

“A lot of children’s programming will go on out there,” Roberts said.

The Emerald Ballroom, with its adjoining verandas, was intended for wedding receptions, graduation and holiday parties, and the Ruby Conference Hall was designed for smaller parties, corporate training and trade shows, Roberts said.

The recreational side includes a full-court gymnasium, game room, multi-purpose rooms, indoor racquetball courts, fitness center and children’s room. The children’s room has small cubbies, child-sized bathroom facilities and murals of jungle animals.

“All the different leagues, you know, they struggle to find a place to play,” Roberts said of the gym.

The civic center still amazes her, she admits.

“You don’t forget when you walk in, it’s like, ‘Tickle me,’ ” she said. “This place is going to take off. I know it is.”

Tags: Port St. Lucie Civic Center

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Community events, Port St. Lucie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.