PORT ST. LUCIE — When Maria Trigueiro and her husband, Jose, bought a home in Lake Forest after living in New Hampshire, they did so under the impression that the vegetative buffer between the home and Florida’s Turnpike would remain untouched.

About six years later, Trigueiro is upset that St. Lucie West Services District officials are pulling up invasive, non-native Brazilian pepper trees in the surrounding community. The trees behind her house are still in the ground, but she is worried they will be coming down soon.

Under its development permit through the South Florida Water Management District, St. Lucie West Services District is required to check its property and destroy invasive plants such as the Brazilian pepper, which crowds out native vegetation and can damage the local environment.
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FORT PIERCE — St. Lucie County has set its sights on landing an unnamed eyeglass lens research firm that could bring 200 high-paying jobs to the Treasure Coast and create a curriculum at Indian River State College focused on training people to work for the company.

The county is awaiting Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development arm, to approve its share of an incentive package that would require the local government to provide about $550,500 as its part of a state and local package that includes a job growth incentive grant and property tax breaks.

“This is a serious competition for us,” said Larry Pelton, president of the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County. “I can’t give you more until we see how this all turns out.”
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FORT PIERCE — Soon residents and visitors to South Beach’s Jetty Park will get to enjoy more waterfront views, parking and easier access to a 2 1/2-mile linear park.

The City Commission, seated as the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency board, Wednesday approved a $1.4 million land acquisition that will double the size of Jetty Park to 2.87 acres.

The purchase is for 1 acre on the eastern side of the vacant Mariner Bay Motel property, formerly the Days Inn, at the corner of Seaway Drive and State Road A1A. (more…)

STUART — Signs of economic distress abound in Martin County and the outlook for next year doesn’t appear to be much better.

Martin County’s population dipped slightly since last year, school enrollment is expected to decline for two years, government revenues are down and new construction has dropped, several local and state officials said this week during government meetings.

The housing market is so bad two developers asked Martin County to rescind their hard won final site plan approvals for new subdivisions so they can delay paying impact fees and utility connection charges, said Growth Management Director Nicki van Vonno.

“That is a recent trend and it’s directly tied to the applicant’s ability to go forward or not,” van Vonno said. “Money is tight.”

The County Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to rescind the final site plan approval for the Pentalago subdivision, 42 ranchettes on Citrus Boulevard near Interstate 95 in Palm City Farms. (more…)

STUART — The swimming pool at Martin County High will remain open another year, the Martin County Commission and Martin County School Board agreed Tuesday.

The pool is used by hundreds of high school, club and adult swimmers.

The Martin County Commission voted during a joint meeting between the School Board and Stuart Commission Tuesday to pay $113,000 to keep the swimming pool at Martin County High School open to the public for another year while a new $9 million-plus Aquatics Complex is developed.
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INDIANTOWN — The long-stalled Quillen Development of Regional Impact is dead and the developer is missing in action.

The Martin County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to kill the proposal for 2,250 houses and 150,000 square feet of commercial space at the intersection of Warfield Boulevard and Allapattah Road in Indiantown.

Officials with the project’s developer, Ascot Development of Delray Beach, did not attend Tuesday’s public hearing on the fate of the project, which was first proposed in December 2005. The developer paid $58.5 million for the land.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Hundreds of Tesoro property owners aren’t waiting around while their subdivision’s developer grinds through bankruptcy court: They’re filing their own lawsuits against Ginn Resorts and its affiliates.

Property owners are charging Ginn with a host of wrongdoings, including selling lots through Ponzi schemes, fraudulently inflating property values, lying to and duping clients, failing to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership dues and missing escrow accounts and backing out on promises to build amenities.

Timothy Vetrano, 72, a retiree from Manhasset, N.Y., who lives at Tesoro with his wife Marilyn, said his experience falls under “buyer beware.”
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Hundreds of boom-time buyers in Florida have tried to use the Interstate Land Sales Act to wiggle out of real estate contracts. Some have been successful, others haven’t — but a recent ruling shines light on the risk involved in pursuing such cases.

A magistrate judge ruled late last month that three buyers at St. Lucie County’s Ocean Bay Villas who were suing in an attempt to get their deposits back must repay $76,600 in attorneys fees and costs to the developer, Stuart-based Pukka Development Inc.

“The question is: Do these lawyers explain to these buyers the risk if they lose? The developers are going to go after the attorney’s fees,” said Mark Grant, a partner at Ruden McClosky in Fort Lauderdale who represented Pukka.

In the Pukka case, the plaintiffs — Saverio Pugliese, Michael Mieves, Antonio Saladino and Stephen Matalyak — claimed Pukka violated the Interstate Land Sales Act because it didn’t file specific property reports required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida ultimately ruled that Pukka was exempt form the reports.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — More than a year after developers of the planned Cloud Grove had the county put the controversial 12,000-home project “on hold,” their creditor has added it to the Treasure Coast’s ranks of foreclosed properties.

“I imagine this pretty much closes any opportunities for that project,” St. Lucie County Commission Chairwoman Paula Lewis said this week.

MLIC Asset Holdings LLC, of Morristown, N.J., an affiliate of the lender, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., filed the foreclosure suit in Circuit Court on Nov. 26, accusing the developers of failing to pay on a $48 million mortgage.

MLIC is scheduled to auction the Cloud Grove land to the “highest and best bidder” at 11 a.m. June 24 in the St. Lucie County Courthouse.

Officials from Lennar Homes, who were managing the project in a partnership with Centex Homes, could not be reached for comment. (more…)

Seven Treasure Coast high schools made Newsweek’s Best High Schools list this year, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report recognizes the top 1,300 high schools across the country for offering challenging courses to its advanced students in Newsweek’s annual study of “America’s Best High Schools.” Only the top 100 schools are listed in the magazine, but the entire list of schools is available on the magazine’s Web site, www.newsweek.com.
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