Port St. Lucie

Port St. Lucie is a coastal waterway city on the Treasure Coast of southeastern Florida. Spanish mariners named the surrounding river after Saint Lucy of Syracuse during the 16th century. The municipality borders the North Fork of the St. Lucie River as it winds toward the Atlantic coastal lagoons.

Clover Park hosts the New York Mets baseball team for major league spring training games each February and March. Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens displays rare tropical orchids, bamboo collections, and native palms along the freshwater wetlands. The Saints Golf Course provides public championship fairways among pine flatwoods and freshwater lakes. Savannas Preserve State Park protects the last intact stretch of freshwater coastal marshes in southeast Florida. MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center presents fine art exhibitions, theatrical productions, and civic community gatherings.

General Development Corporation bought former cattle ranches and riverfront estates in the 1950s to construct an expansive residential community. The settlement received incorporation as a city in 1961 as initial housing subdivisions opened along the waterways. New highway bridges crossed the river channel during the 1970s, linking inland residential neighborhoods to regional coastal thoroughfares. Substantial commercial expansion moved westward across the turnpike corridor during the 1990s through the master-planned districts of St. Lucie West and Tradition. Extensive canal networks drained former pasturelands to establish neighborhood lakes and suburban recreation corridors.

Maverick Boat Group manufactures offshore sportfishing boats and coastal flats skiffs at its local marine plants. TAMCO Group designs commercial lighting luminaires and electrical distribution enclosures for commercial buildings. Accel International produces silver-plated copper conductors and high-performance cable wiring for aerospace equipment. A-1 Industries fabricates pre-engineered timber roof trusses and structural floor components for housing contractors across the state. Commercial citrus groves along the western city limits yield red grapefruit and juice oranges for regional fruit packing companies.