St. Lucie County Approves 826,000 Sq Ft Industrial Complex Near Fort Pierce Neighborhoods

Justin Harrison grew up in the Samba and Copenhaver neighborhoods off Kings Highway. On Tuesday, he stood before the St. Lucie County Commission and asked five elected officials to remember what the roads and ditches look like when it rains — before they voted to put 826,000 square feet of industrial buildings next door.

The board voted 5-0 to approve the Fort Pierce Commerce Center anyway, rezoning nearly 76 acres along Kings Highway to planned non-residential development and amending the future land use map to mixed-use development. For residents near the site, the decision means a three-building industrial complex — with truck loading docks, expansive parking lots and an estimated 1,360 vehicle trips per day — will rise on land they've long watched stay quiet.

The project's scale makes it one of the largest single land-use approvals in St. Lucie County in recent years. Developer Leslie Olson of District Planning Group told commissioners the site's position between Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike makes it a natural anchor for what county officials have called the Kings Highway jobs corridor.

The vote was not without friction. County staff had recommended flipping the orientation of the southeastern building to push truck loading docks away from nearby homes. Olson pushed back, arguing the redesign would force passenger vehicles and delivery trucks onto shared routes. "We have all the trucks on their own route through the site and all the passenger cars on a different route and we can't do that if we flip the building," Olson said. Commissioners sided with the applicant after reviewing a noise study showing sound levels would remain within county code limits. The board added a condition requiring additional sound barriers if future noise complaints breach those thresholds at residential property lines.

Harrison's stormwater concerns drew a direct response from the developer, who argued the new system would treat runoff on-site rather than letting it sheet-flow onto adjacent properties — an improvement over the unmanaged drainage the older neighborhoods currently absorb, Olson said. The Samba and Copenhaver areas lack master drainage systems, public documents indicate.

The approved plan preserves 27% of the site as wetlands and native habitat, creates roughly one acre of new wetlands and restores six acres of upland habitat. A legacy easement will protect future access to a 10-acre undeveloped residential parcel to the north.

No implementation date was announced. The noise monitoring condition will be enforceable once the complex is occupied, officials said.

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