PORT ST. LUCIE — The bill to attract a movie special effects studio is finally in, and it’s a potential blockbuster.

The city has put together a proposed $51.8 million deal, in addition to a $20 million state incentive package, to build a movie and video game animation and military simulation studio on 15 acres within Tradition.

City Manager Don Cooper said Thursday the agreement requires Wyndcrest DD Florida Inc. to reimburse the city for the entire financing, except for a $10 million cash grant from developers, through a 20-year annual lease. (more…)

VERO BEACH — Minor League Baseball officials hope their plans for the former Dodgertown will bring year-round business to local hotels, restaurants, stores and health clubs.

Craig Callan, the vice president of MiLB Vero Beach, updated the Taxpayers’ Association of Indian River County at its monthly membership meeting Wednesday on the future of the former spring training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. (more…)

Some extra cash could be a phone call away for dozens of Treasure Coast residents.

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for 223 Treasure Coast taxpayers who are due refund checks worth more than $15 million statewide. The refund checks were returned to the IRS by the U.S. Postal Service because of mailing address errors. (more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office says it will have more information available later this morning about a robbery at a KFC restaurant.

The incident happened shortly after 8:30 p.m. Monday, at the KFC located at 6632 U.S. 1, near Kitterman Road, north of Port St. Lucie.

There was no immediate indication of how much money was taken, if any, or how many suspects may be involved. No one was believed to have been injured.
WPTV.com, TCPalm.com

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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