VERO BEACH — A high-level financial struggle over the troubled Vero Fashion Outlets now may reach into an owner’s family trust, court records show.

In early October the outdoor mall filed for bankruptcy in federal court, a move that halted a foreclosure lawsuit filed by the mall’s creditor, LNV Corp. of Nevada, in Indian River Circuit Court. LNV Corp.’s attorney Kenneth Curtin contends the mall defaulted on a $32 million loan for purchase of the 329,000-square-foot mall in 2007. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — The owners of a new antique mall expect to open Hidden Treasures of the Treasure Coast in a few weeks on U.S. 1. (more…)

VERO BEACH — A second high-level Piper Aircraft Inc. executive is resigning from the company, less than six months after the company’s chief executive officer resigned.

The resignation of Piper’s president, John Becker, was announced Monday. His last day is Dec. 1. (more…)

FELLSMERE — Gov. Charlie Crist is scheduled Tuesday to see for himself the progress in alternative fuels at a local algae farm.

Crist is expected to arrive between 2 and 3 p.m. at PetroAlgae, in the 14600 block of 101st Street, governor’s aides said. (more…)

HOBE SOUND — Pennsylvania natives Bryan Theiss and Christina Gillin first met nine years ago while working as lifeguards on a beach in Ocean City, N.J.

Married since April, the couple recently started the first private lifeguard service in the Treasure Coast. Bryan Theiss is an emergency medical technician and ocean rescue lifeguard for Palm Beach County.

“I love saving people. It’s the best feeling,” Theiss said.
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STUART — Stuart Defense Attorney Robert Udell has been disbarred after agreeing to surrender his ability to practice law amid allegations he committed ethical and possibly criminal violations and fraudulently billed the state’s Justice Administrative Commission.

Defense attorney Robert Udell (right) leans onto the shoulder of Nathaniel Brazill after the verdict in Brazill's murder trial in May 2001. Brazill shot and killed teacher Barry Grunow on the last day of school in May 2000. Brazill, 14, was convicted of second-degree murder murder in the slaying. Photo by Lannis Waters/ The Palm Beach Post.

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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Nike Factory Store will hold its grand opening celebration starting 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at its newest location at the Vero Fashion Outlets.

The Nike Factory Store, 1824 94th Drive west of Interstate 95 in Indian River County, will offer an assortment of sport inspired footwear, apparel and equipment. (more…)

Port St. Lucie Civic Center

Mayor Patricia Christensen called it the “beginning of a new era.”

Since its opening, though, the $25 million facility has had more success as a recreation center than as the economic anchor of a burgeoning “downtown” in a city built without one.

Its surrounding streets, with names such as Progress Lane and Main Street, are flanked by empty fields.

Its rental facilities have been used 180 times. Rental rates were cut in half late last month.

“The whole idea for this was to stimulate the development of a downtown and obviously the economy has had an effect on that,” said Chuck Proulx, the city’s parks and recreation director.
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Workers build pieces of FPL's new solar plant near Indiantown.

These frames will eventually hold mirrors to collect the sun's energy.

With the first mirrors set to arrive this week, that promise is starting to take shape.

“We want to harness all that free energy,” said John Gnecco, FPL’s director of project development.

The idea of solar-thermal energy sounds easy enough, and it is. Kind of.

In the most basic terms, the process works like this: The sun’s light strikes a mirror and is beamed into a pipe, which “catches” the energy and moves it, via molten liquid, into a power plant where it boils water into steam. The steam is used for power.

Jose Suarez, a spokesman for FPL, explains it this way: “When the sun comes up every day, you’re able to take your foot off the gas and let the sun generate steam.”

What seems simple on paper, though, is far more complex on the ground. (more…)

INDIANTOWN — Beyond the taqueria and past the cattle ranches here, more than 700 workers are busy building the largest solar-power plant in Florida.

They’re assembling giant aluminum frames that stretch 40 feet long and weigh 2,800 pounds apiece.

When the frames are finished, they will fit them with 192,000 mirrors.

And, eventually, they will attach steel pipes to hold liquid that the sun will heat to 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

To see the scene at Florida Power & Light Co.’s solar-thermal plant in western Martin County is to think that a new era of clean energy has finally dawned in the Sunshine State.

But not so fast.

Despite lots of talk about the need to be green, state lawmakers dragged their feet on proposed legislation this year. They never managed to pass a renewable-energy bill.

FPL says it has more solar projects ready to go — but it can’t build them until the state approves a law allowing it to recover the costs of construction. (more…)