A long-favored plan for creating an inland distribution center to maximize cargo taken in by the maritime industry in South Florida is dead, and the sugar company that proposed it is recommending that the Port of Palm Beach start over in its search for a location.
Florida Crystals plan to host the 318-acre South Florida Regional Intermodal Logistics Center in western Palm Beach County has been taken off the table, and the company is offering instead an 850-acre plot elsewhere in the poverty-stricken rural area.
The company is presenting the new site proposal Thursday to the board of directors of Port of Palm Beach, which would partner in the "inland port" project. It will recommend that the board restart the application process and re-open it to applicants so the port can avoid potential litigation.
The chance for thousands of jobs and extra money and extra cargo brought to Florida when the Panama Canal widening is finished in 2014 is enticing rabid competition for the port.
Its the most fair way, said Danny Martell, vice president of real estate for Florida Crystals.
The lawyer for a group of landowners backing a St. Lucie County site for the inland port, the second-highest ranked site proposed for the project, said Florida Crystals concern about litigation is valid.
If the Port of Palm Beach chooses to move forward with Florida Crystals proposed alternate site, located west of State Road 715 between the towns of South Bay and Belle Glade, without restarting the proposal process, the Treasure Coast Intermodal Campus project would sue to avoid losing its prominence in the process.
We would have no choice, said land-use attorney Johnathan Ferguson. We have too much invested in the process.
Late last year, the Port of Palm Beach picked a Florida Crystals site next to the companys Okeelanta facility, six miles south of South Bay in rural western Palm Beach County, as the location of the inland port.
The 318-acre center, a warehouse and distribution site that can aid in the storage and movement of cargo imports by truck and rail, was touted as a way to bring jobs to the economically depressed Belle Glade region, where unemployment has hovered at around 40 percent. An inland port could create as many as 600 jobs per million square feet.
The companys attempt to change its land-use plan was opposed by environmental and land management groups for its potential effect on Everglades restoration and opposed by the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the states growth management agency.
After months of negotiation, Florida Crystals reached a settlement that would allow it to move the location of the project to its new site.
The settlement was agreed upon Tuesday by the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, the last body that needed to join. The others in the settlement are Florida Crystals, the DCA and growth management watchdog 1,000 Friends of Florida. 1,000 Friends and DCA have both said the new site is acceptable.
In the meantime, the city of Port St. Lucie is moving forward with the approval process for annexing 7,139 acres, 5,000 of which are buildable, to accommodate the inland port.
The Treasure Coast Intermodal Campus project would be located fronting Glades Cutoff Road on the northern boundary of the city and close to the rail line there
The project is proposed by landowners Kennedy Groves Inc., Bay Hill Holdings LLC, Southern Fruit Groves LLP and Mabel Groves LLP. It is scheduled for its first annexation hearing by the Port St. Lucie City Council Monday.
The St. Lucie site now has an advantage, attorney Ferguson said. In its original request for proposals, the Port requested that the projects should include 3,500 acres, although the Florida Crystals site qualified because it would add land as it expands.
The St. Lucie site already has that land. If the Port were to move forward with the alternate Crystals site, it would be allowing a substantial change in the middle of the approval process and be tantamount to changing its site requirements. This would be skirting breaking the law, and the Treasure Coast Intermodal Campus would need to sue, Ferguson said.
He said the Treasure Coast project also stands to lose its advantage in the competition if the Port of Palm Beach restarts the application process. It will allow more applicants to enter the process and make the contract more difficult for the group to maintain.
Martell said that reopening the competition offers little advantage for Florida Crystals, but it protects the Port of Palm Beach from lawsuits. He said the new Crystals site is still better than the Port St. Lucie site, because it's closer to the South Florida market which is so important to the Port of Palm Beach.
The Treasure Coast campus "is almost 60-plus miles farther, and when a truck is moving a container, every foot counts," Martell said.
Reach Alex Tiegen at atiegen@sunshinestatenews.com or at (561) 329-5389.
