Southern Grove Summary and Fact Sheet Southern Grove Fact Sheet | страница 5

How is this situation different from what happened with VGTI and Digital Domain?
With both VGTI and Digital Domain, the City used a Covenant to Budget and Appropriate
to guarantee the bonds on those facilities, which were envisioned as major economic
development projects that could open Port St. Lucie to the bioscience and technology
industries. However, the recession and loss of government funding caused the
companies to shut down in Port St. Lucie.
Because of the Covenant to Budget and Appropriate, the City was forced to assume
the debt service for these facilities. The Digital Domain building was subsequently
sold to Christ Fellowship Church, and the City now has control of the former VGTI
building and is aggressively marketing it for sale as the Florida Center for Biosciences.
Southern Grove is not a single purpose building.
The Covenant to Budget and Appropriate for Southern Grove addresses infrastructure
available to all resi dents, business and visitors in the City, not for buildings to support
specific entities.
The funded improvements included:
• A four-mile divided road (Village Parkway) from Becker Road to Tradition
Parkway along with signalization;
• Water and sewer trunk lines on Village Parkway;
• Community Blvd. south of Tradition Parkway;
• The I-95 interchange at Becker Road;
• A four-lane, divided section of Becker Road from I-95 to Village Parkway.
What is the City doing to ensure that it will never be in this situation again?
Unfortunately, the City does not have the ability to go back in time and undo past
decisions. However, more than two and a half years ago, the City Council changed
the rules to prevent this type of situation from ever happening again in Port St. Lucie.
As a result, the City Council voted unanimously to prohibit any future use of Covenant
to Budget and Appropriate provisions on economic development projects. In short,
that type of economic development, where the City guarantees bonds for such
projects, cannot again occur in Port St. Lucie.
This debt has already been taken into consideration in calculating the City’s overall
debt since 2007. There will be no other similar situations in the future.
What has happened since the March 29 City Council meeting?
City Council on March 29, 2018 agreed to pursue option 3. Staff began working on a
disposition action plan for the sale of these properties. Staff has engaged legal council
to assist in the title review, negotiation and preparation of a transfer agreement and
reviewing due diligence materials related to the property. Staff has conducted due
diligence, advertised for possible joint venture partners and negotiated all closing
costs.