Q&A: Wes McCurry, Tradition Development

By HILLARY COPSEY
Tradition, the massive master-planned community in western Port St. Lucie, is at the center of plans to turn the Treasure Coast into a biomedical research hub. Residents and retailers are beginning to arrive in Core Communities' 8,200-acre project, but even bigger plans are around the corner as California-based Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies plans to expand here.

Tradition Development president Wes McCurry talked recently about the past, present and future of Tradition and Port St. Lucie.


Q: How does Tradition fit in with the rest of Port St. Lucie?
A: With (Interstate) 95, it's a pretty big barrier and right now you just have one crossing. ... It's a little isolated. But we are seeing people come in here to go to the Publix or jog around the lake.
The customers buying here are pretty much the same as the ones buying across the street (Interstate 95).

Q: The housing market in Port St. Lucie — and all over the country — is slowing. How do you keep people buying?
A: The whole project is an amenity. You've got places to work and shop right where you live. It's something that you can't find in Port St. Lucie, or really much in this region.

Q: Tell me about the development types in Tradition. Are there new ideas or special projects?
A: We're going to be trying some different and innovative things. We're doing green buildings. ... We're also looking at land planning, tightening everything up and getting more density. ... We're turning the whole development inside-out, creating a social infrastructure — allowing (a development) to be a community.

Q: You've got a lot of interest from retailers now. You say Core has talked to these businesses for years, but when did the talking, the "maybes," become "yes, we want to open there"?
A: Port St. Lucie has grown up. It's not your sleepy bedroom town anymore. ... You've got a demographic with money in the north of us in Vero Beach and to the south of us in Martin County. And here, you've got the mass of people.

Q: You've planned for Tradition to be a research hub and a retail center, with a shopping mall, in the next five to 10 years. Where do you see Tradition — and Port St. Lucie — in the next 15 to 20 years?
A: You're just seeing the beginnings of a larger project. ... That's true for the city as a whole as well. I think people are just now beginning to discover it.