Fort Pierce considering creation of jobs corridor similar to Port St. Lucie

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — The rapid growth of the Jobs Corridor in Port St. Lucie is inspiring Fort Pierce to consider creating one themselves.

Like Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce is about 100 miles from Miami and Orlando in either direction, making it a wise choice for companies to call home.

“We’re talking about manufacturing, we’re talking about distribution because like it or not, we are a distribution center because of I-95 and because of the airport and because of the turnpike,” said Linda Hudson, the Mayor of Fort Pierce.

The idea of the new corridor – which would be the approximately 2.5 mile stretch along Kings Highway, between Orange Avenue and Okeechobee Road – was presented to the city by the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County.

The organization’s President, Pete Tesch, tells CBS12 News that they’re trying to address the same problem they targeted with the expansion of the Tradition Jobs Corridor months ago.

“61% of our workforce hops in the car and drives someplace else for work every day,” he shared.

“People have been going from St. Lucie County south to jobs and north and northwest to jobs, so we want to keep our people here,” mayor Hudson echoed.

Local residents appear split on bringing in more warehouses and manufacturing centers.

“There’s conflict in decision because industrialization is contrary to nature,” said Fort Pierce resident Diane Wynne. “At the same time, local is best, so it will call in people to work and live here perhaps.”

“Those big companies, they add jobs and build up the community, and it’s good,” added St. Lucie County resident Gary P.

The mayor says living and training options have to come too, to help local people qualify for the jobs that come.

“Workforce housing, workforce readiness, all of those things that we need to go along with it,” she remarked. With the western corridor of development, that still means that we have our charm and waterfront and beaches and not the huge crowds here that sometimes people say ‘no, stop, we don’t want any more people.”

For now, it’s just in the community outreach stage, but if this goes through the mayor says the city would be open to stretching the corridor north of Orange Avenue…but that’s well into the future.