Modern-day land rush
High demand has led to record prices for land on which to build huge warehouses and distribution centers in the Treasure Coast. At Legacy Park in Port St. Lucie, more than 5 million square feet are developed, or soon will be, eventually employing more than 3,000. Food service distributor Cheney Brothers held a groundbreaking in April for its distribution center and food-service warehouse. CITY OF PORT ST. LUCIE
Region experiencing a boom in industrial land development
BY BERNIE WOODALL
There is a land rush like no one has ever seen for large plots ripe for industrial development on the Treasure Coast.
Jeff Chamberlin is one of the most active real estate professionals who deal in the large parcels in high demand mostly west of the heavily populated areas.
Chamberlin thinks of the 1920s political pitch promising a “chicken in every pot” as a sign of prosperity when he thinks of this industrial boom.
“Here on the Treasure Coast, we’re going to get a million-square-foot warehouse at every I-95 interchange,” Chamberlin, president of SLC Commercial, said.
Chamberlin’s firm brokered the land sale for the Amazon distribution warehouse, which Amazon calls a fulfillment center, on 110 acres at Midway Business Park on West Midway Road near Interstate 95.
Midway and I-95 is just one of the areas being developed for industrial sites. Others include the Kings Highway corridor near the Orange Avenue [State Road 68] interchange with I-95 and Legacy Park at Tradition in Port St. Lucie at Becker Road and I-95.
There is also a booming area for industry between the Treasure Coast International Airport and Kings Highway, where 37 acres recently sold for $5.2 million in a deal brokered by Coldwell Banker Commercial Paradise.
SLOW START IN THE ’80S
One of the major companies at Legacy Park is FedEx. The company’s distribution center is shown under construction in October 2021. Amazon is at Legacy, too. Legacy Park developer Sansone Group said it is a two-hour drive from 8 million people and a four-hour drive from 20 million people. CITY OF PORT ST. LUCIE
Lifelong St. Lucie County resident Hoyt C. Murphy Jr., a Realtor with the firm, said the promise of an industrial land boom is not new. It’s been around since the late 1980s when I-95 was completed from Miami to the Georgia state line. The completion of the interstate along with the confluence of it and Florida’s Turnpike in Fort Pierce made the area logistically alluring to industrial developers.
When his firm did the site sale for the Walmart Distribution Center on Jenkins Road in Fort Pierce nearly two decades ago, Murphy said he figured that a wave of similar sales was in the offing, but that didn’t happen.
“Then, in the past three years, it’s gone crazy,” Murphy said. “… well over 10 million square feet of industrial facilities are under construction or in the permitting process” in St. Lucie County.
The $5.2-million sale Murphy’s firm brokered was at an average of $140,000 an acre. Five years ago, a generous estimate of the value would have been $40,000 per acre, Murphy said.
Chamberlin says land values for large parcels good for industrial development are $150,000 to $200,000 per acre, up from $90,000 and less several years ago.
It’s the location, land price and the access to major highways that lures big companies from Amazon to FedEx to build in the region.
“You can reach 65% of the population in Florida within two to three hours” of St. Lucie County, said Pete Tesch, president of the St. Lucie Economic Development Center, which has been instrumental in the process of developing the large land parcels.
Tesch said the county and the Treasure Coast benefits by the growth of the overall Florida economy, which he says would be the 15th or 16th largest in the world if it were its own country.
A half-dozen industrial real estate developers, all with multistate footprints, are working on seven St. Lucie County sites. Higher prices and fewer large parcels south of the Treasure Coast has pushed developers to Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties. ST. LUCIE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
DELIVERING THE GOODS
There are precious few large parcels of land still open to industrial development in the more populated counties south of the Treasure Coast: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Those are also the three most heavily populated counties in the state to make up its largest consumer market.
When there are such parcels in the largest counties south of the Treasure Coast, the prices are much higher, said Chris Dzadovsky, St. Lucie County commissioner.
As the consumer market shifts to delivery-to-home purchases, there is more demand for massive warehouses and distribution centers, Chamberlin said.
“This is all new territory for us,” Chamberlin said. “It’s the advent of distribution being the new retail. Delivery to your home.”
W. Lee Dobbins, a land-use attorney in St. Lucie County, said that rather than put a distribution warehouse in South Florida or Central Florida, it makes sense to locate on the Treasure Coast in order to serve both of those big markets.
When city and county and economic development officials work to land large industrial facilities, they use code words to help identify them but keep their details secret until sales are closed.
Elijah Wooten Jr., business navigator for Port St. Lucie, said a Project Green and a Project Apron both call for 1-million-square-foot buildings north of the under-construction Amazon 1.1-million-square-foot distribution center in the Midway Business Center.
RIPE FOR DEVELOPMENT
Industrial land development is progressing on a smaller scale but is active in Indian River and Martin counties.
Phil Matson, community development director for Indian River County, said that there are about 9,000 acres of land for potential development in Fellsmere west of I-95 and north of State Road 60. And there is a 99-acre parcel ripe for development on Oslo Road and I-95 that was the former site of a state youthful offender prison.
There is major potential for industrial development on Oslo Road, in the southern part of the county, particularly once a new interchange at Oslo and I-95 opens in three years, Matson said. There is also a plan to improve Oslo Road from 58th Avenue to west of the interstate.
In northern Indian River County, an existing industrial park that is home to Triton Submarines has parcels available for development, Matson said.
In Fellsmere, there are several large land owners that have flirted with sales of large tracts, and some projects are in the planning stages, said Fellsmere City Manager Mark D. Mathes. Some of the acreage now devoted to citrus farming may become available, he said.
Land values are likely to continue to rise, and Fellsmere is located to take advantage of relatively low land prices and development expenses in an area close to growing Central Florida.
“If you want to get in, this is the time to get in. It’s about ready to take off,” Mathes said.
Not all companies coming to the Treasure Coast need huge warehouses. Chandler Bats, which makes wooden baseball bats for Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees as well as other Major League Baseball players, moved its headquarters and manufacturing plant from Pennsylvania to Port St. Lucie.
ST. LUCIE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
JUST A MATTER OF TIME
Martin County Administrator Don Donaldson said that while there is industrial activity in the county, there are no 1-million-square-foot mega-warehouses going up or in the planning process. For now, the largest parcels are zoned for agriculture and do not allow for industrial development.
But Chamberlin says it’s a matter of time that pressure will build to create those huge buildings along I-95 in Martin County. It may take longer than in St. Lucie County, but Chamberlin says he still sees a million-square-foot warehouse at every I-95 interchange from the Palm Beach County line to Sebastian.
Frannie Hutchinson, St. Lucie County commissioner and lifelong resident of the county, said she has sought to bring smart development to the county in her 20 years as commissioner.
She said that there was considerable interest in the county’s industrial land until the recession around 2008 quelled it for a decade or so.
“We have been discovered,” Hutchinson said.
The type of industrial development happening will help keep taxes down for homeowners and create jobs.
“These huge buildings are going to generate a lot of taxes and they are not going to add to the traffic in town,” Chamberlin said.
However, Dzadovsky is aware of the burden that the growth might cause homeowners.
“We have tried to focus on taking the pressure off the homeowners and diversify our tax base,” he explained. “When you are too reliant on residential rooftops to pay for your infrastructure, it puts too much of a strain on homeowners.”
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