ST. LUCIE WEST — Martin Memorial Health Systems plans to open a freestanding emergency department this fall to provide medical care to western Port St. Lucie until it can build a full-service, 80-bed hospital in Tradition.
Martin Memorial and Port St. Lucie officials gathered Tuesday to celebrate the start of construction on the emergency center, which will be part of the health systems’ facility on St. Lucie West Boulevard. Expected to open by Sept. 1, the 12-bed center will be a full-service emergency department.
“It will provide critical services close to home rather than having people fight traffic when time matters most,” Martin Memorial Chief Executive Officer Mark Robitaille said.
Port St. Lucie’s growing population and sometimes gridlocked traffic were Martin Memorial’s main arguments for building a hospital in the city, which already is home to St. Lucie Medical Center, a for-profit hospital owned by Tennessee-based HCA Inc. (more…)

The Baehrs — Derek, Kellyanne and their two young daughters are five months behind on their mortgage payments. They sometimes eat at a soup kitchen and shop at a food pantry. They expect to lose their three-bedroom suburban house before the end of the school year.
“This is just awful, and I know that we are not the only ones going through this,’’ says Kellyanne, 37, an accounting clerk. Derek, 40, is disabled. “We used to try to go day by day. Now we are just trying to get to the end of each day.’’

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By EVE SAMPLES
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
PORT ST. LUCIE — One of the world’s leading HIV-vaccine development teams is moving from Montreal to Port St. Lucie.

Rafick-Pierre Sékaly of the University of Montreal and his group of more than 30 scientists will relocate to the city in the next few months to work at VGTI Florida, the East Coast branch of Oregon Health & Science University’s Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, the institute announced today.

VGTI accepted $60 million in state incentives last year to open a campus in Port St. Lucie.
Construction of VGTI’s 105,000-square-foot facility is expected to start in the coming months. Meanwhile, Sékaly and his team will work from the third floor of the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, which just moved into its new building at the Tradition development. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Moving day is getting closer for Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies.

The last checklist items are being completed as the research institute prepares for a phased move from their temporary home at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce to the new $40 million complex in Tradition in early January.

While Torrey Pines administrators are expected to occupy their offices when the doors open, the scientists may wait another month or two before settling into the new lab space.

“In reality there is work going on that would create dust and noise and it’s easier to time our move so ongoing (chemistry and molecular biology) experiments are not disrupted,” said Torrey Pines President Richard Houghten.

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A luxury senior community in Port St. Lucie is going on the auction block. Bankrupt builder Levitt and Sons is auctioning off homes in Tradition in western Port St. Lucie.

The builder still owes $86 million on the 55 and older Seasons development. Seasons at Tradition is one of 11 Levitt communities under construction and in the process of foreclosure. Contractors stopped building last November, leaving many unfinished homes.

The properties are scheduled to be auctioned on Dec. 29 at 11 a.m. at the St. Lucie County courthouse.

– Tara Simone, CBS 12

Police composite of suspect.

The 17-year-old girl said she caught the man peeping into her home in the Tradition development at about 6 a.m. on Thursday. She called authorities but the man had fled the area before officers arrived, police spokesman Sgt. Robert Vega said.

In hopes of catching the suspect, Officer Dewayne Riesen hid in a nearby park this morning, when he saw a man riding a bicycle approach the teen’s home in Southwest West Park Avenue at about 6 a.m., Vega said. The man peered through the window before Riesen approached him, Vega said.

A struggle broke out between the two and after a few minutes, the man broke free and ran off on foot, Vega said. (more…)

St. Lucie County Fire District will dedicate new fire stations and a neighborhood park this week.

Wednesday, officials will dedicate Fire Station #16 at 3910 S.W. Port St. Lucie Blvd. in Port St. Lucie at 9 a.m.

Then at 10 a.m., officials will celebrate Fire Station #17 at 10240 S.W. Village Parkway in Tradition in Port St. Lucie.

And at 11 a.m., a neighborhood Tot Lot at 5160 N.W. Milner Drive in Port St. Lucie will be dedicated.