While there
has been much talk about the taxpayer subsidized Digital Domain building and
Torrey Pines Research Center,
little has been said about the building boom along dealer row in
St. Lucie County, which is expected to add jobs and significantly increase
the property tax base----all without one cent of taxpayer money.
Garber
Buick GMC of Fort Pierce, which purchased the dealership from the Dean family at 5255 South U.S.1, invested
$5 million to bulldoze the existing buildings and to construct a new 25,000
square foot dealership along with a 3,000 square foot used car building. Mike Weinert, general manager and managing
partner of the dealership, said when the project is completed this summer, he
expects to hire at least 10 more employees, expanding the staff to 40 plus
workers.
In addition,
he hired a local contractor to build the facility and his goal is to use
vendors from St. Lucie County.
“We try
to keep it local,” he said.
The
Garber Automotive Group, based in Michigan, did extensive research before purchasing the property and decided it
was worth the investment.
“There is a lot of growth on the Treasure Coast,”Weinert said.
The
Coggin group came to the same conclusion when it decided to build the new Acura
store at 4400 South U.S.1. The 30,000
square foot state- of –the-art facility, which opened last month, has a
skylight that illuminates the entire showroom and uses i Pads and other high
tech gadgets for selling and servicing vehicles.
A spokesman said the Coggin Group, owned by Asbury Holdings
made a “substantial investment” to build
the Acura store, which will add about 20 employees, bringing the total
employment count to 50.
The location of the property was one of the
main reasons the new facility was built.
“It’s centrally
located between Vero and Stuart,” he said.
“It’s a great opportunity.”
Dyer
Chevrolet, which recently took over Bill Shultz Chevrolet at 4200 South U.S.1,
is also under construction, investing
$2. 5 million gutting and renovating that store. “It was long overdue,” said Tatiana
Dyer,who along with her husband, Will, also operates dealerships in Vero Beach.
Besides
the new façade, they have installed new service department lifts and other equipment, put on a new roof
and added about 20 new employees. The
renovations should be completed in two months .
Sunrise Ford is opening its Truck World, which will only sell used pickup trucks, on its property at 5359 South U.S.1. We plan on having the biggest inventory on
the Treasure Coast. At least five new
employees will be on the Truck World payroll.
Like the other dealers, we felt it was the right time to expand our
operation.
The
building boom along U.S.1, along with the additional jobs, certainly should please county
officials—especially since the county is collecting significant impact fees and
higher property taxes from the dealerships.
That is in stark contrast to the debacles in Port St. Lucie, where
taxpayers paid about $100 million to Torrey Pines Research Center which was
supposed to generate 189 jobs. It now
hires about 100 people and was forced to take out a mortgage on its city-paid
building because it does not have enough money for its operating expenses.
Port
St. Lucie gave $40 million to Digital Domain for its building and the company received another $30 million
in state and city incentives. As most
now know, that apparently wasn't enough. The company went bust.Number of
employees at present.Zero.
Sunrise Ford has about 80 employees and this year paid $89,638 in county
property taxes. It’s annual payroll is
$4 million.Multiply those numbers by the 12 dealerships in the county and you
get a good idea of what they contribute
to St. Lucie County. There were some
vacant dealerships during the recession,
but most of us just tightened our belts and held on as best we could until the
economy rebounded. We continued to pay
our taxes, kept as many people on our payroll as possible, and still managed to
give to local charities and community organizations.
Unlike Torrey Pines,
we could not go to the city and ask for a special deal that would allow us to
mortgage a building we didn't pay for in the first place. We also were not given $50 million of
taxpayer incentives to help pay for our operating expenses during those tough
times.
You would
think Port St. Lucie city and St. Lucie county officials would learn a lesson
or two from the Torrey Pines and Digital Domain experiences. But I am not so sure. Last month the county offered $312,640 in
property tax breaks to lure a bakery distributor to St. Lucie County. The county also promised to waive $49,333 in
impact fees and give the company a $51,750 “job growth” grant. Number of jobs expected from those
handouts—30.
