Club Med, the Treasure Coast's only destination resort and a major employer in the region for more than 30 years, is looking at the fouled, brown North Fork of the St. Lucie River and weighing its precarious future in Port St. Lucie.
Club Med officials in Miami are talking about a pull-out.
Since the tourist season began, Port St. Lucie -- like Martin County to the south -- has been hammered by massive freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee that changed the composition of its waterways. And now another blow -- a 90-mile-long swath of Indian River Lagoon brown tide and a fish kill of heartbreaking proportions.
Subsequent publicity about "poisoned rivers" hasn't helped the 216-acre riverfront resort between Orlando and Miami fill its 307 club and deluxe rooms.
"Can you blame Club Med?" said a somber Port St. Lucie Mayor Gregory Oravec. "What guests want to pay money to play on a river they're told to stay away from?"
Kevin Armstrong, a spokesman for the Miami-based international resort chain told Sunshine State News Club Med certainly doesn't want to pull out of Port St. Lucie -- "we have invested millions of dollars in the resort, including $28 million in 2010 to completely renovate and relaunch (it) " -- but "the St. Lucie River is an important highlight ..."
Club Med Port St. Lucie "is focused on the active wellness family market," he said. Armstrong, head of advertising, brand, PR & social media, put it on the line: "The quality of the water in the St Lucie River is an important factor in our decision to continue to invest in the resort and may impact our strategy for the property."
"... May impact our strategy for the property" -- in other words, depending on the longevity of the river pollution, of necessity corporate officials could make a financial decision to walk away from Club Med's only all-inclusive resort in the United states.
Improvements in 2010 included a splash park, the Club Med Academies, a new main restaurant, a waterfront wedding gazebo, improvements to the 18-hole golf course and most recently, the innovative 360° Active Wellness concept, which focused on four key elements of personalization, sports, rejuvenation and nutrition.
Brian Lapointe, Ph.D., marine algae specialist and research professor at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, explained Monday the algae blooms and brown tide represent a perfect storm of high levels of fecal coliform, El Nino gullywashers bringing other polluted runoff, a sudden spike in temperatures and a depletion of oxygen levels for fish and other marine wildlife.
None of it good news for the resort or the city and local economy that depend on it.
According to records in the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser's and Tax Collector's offices, the just/market value of Club Med Port St. Lucie is $38,358,900 -- $33,141,200 for the resort proper and $5,217,700 for the golf course. Total taxes assessed in 2015 for both, not counting the $129,775 stormwater fee, were $925,718.
Even if the resort closes down, its taxes still will be paid. That's not the problem. The bed tax is -- and so is all the other revenue that thousands of tourists pouring into the area generate. Erick Gill, public information manager for the St. Lucie County Commission, said Club Med accounts for approximately 20 percent of the bed tax in St. Lucie County -- money that covers operation and maintenance of the stadium where the New York Mets train plus tourism promotion and debt service on various bonds.
"It would be devastating for us to see Club Med leave," said Mayor Oravec. "That's been the gateway to the city for decades. It's almost impossible to calculate how many of our residents first discovered Port St. Lucie during their Club Med stay. They have an enormous footprint in our community."
"We're trying to identify the sources of our pollution," Oravec said. "A lot of it is fecal coliform, that we know, and it's discouraging. We've asked Brian Lapointe to help us find the source. He's going to work with us."
Said Club Med's Armstrong, "We encourage the various government agencies and departments to work together to urgently address this important topic and to accelerate actions to ensure the quality of the water in the St Lucie River lagoon system."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
