Fort Pierce leaders are angry over Brightline snub. Here's what they plan to do about it

FORT PIERCE — City leaders expressed their frustration and disappointment Monday with Brightline's decision to build its Treasure Coast station in Stuart, but they promised to respond with renewed resolve and determination in attracting future projects.

The City Commission meeting came one week after Stuart officials said their joint bid with Martin County had beaten out two Fort Pierce bids for the station, and on the same day that Brightline officials gathered at the Stuart site to officially make that announcement.

Resident encouragement

Discussion of Brightline at the meeting came after a resident rose to encourage the commissioners and mayor. Debra Brown, who said to "forget about Brightline," told city leaders to take comfort in the fact that God has a plan for the city, and Brightline was not part of that plan.

"I know how y'all must feel because I feel the same way and there's a lot of people that feel the same way," Brown said. "I said, 'Lord, why didn't we get the Brightline? The Lord said, ' .... Didn't nobody consider to ask me what I wanted for Fort Pierce?'"

"I think that said it for everybody," Commissioner Michael Broderick said after Brown concluded.

Fort Pierce pulled out all the stops

Fort Pierce appeared to pull out all the stops in its attempts to market itself to Brightline, including putting up promotional banners on a city-owned parking garage and launching a podcast. Facing the tracks, the banners read "Brightline, your next stop is ... Fort Pierce." The podcast, too, was called "Next Stop Fort Pierce."

Such aggressive targeted promotion may have been new for Fort Pierce, Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson said, but he hinted it will not be the last time the city pursues such opportunities.

"We went down a path, we analyzed, we put in our best opportunities for a different style of growth that we're not used to and we're just changing gears. That's all we're doing," Jeremiah Johnson said. "There's more to come, without a doubt."

The city, which supported its own bid as well as a private one at King's Landing, also secured the support of St. Lucie County, Port St. Lucie and a number of residents in counties closer to Fort Pierce than to Stuart.

"What happened in the process is we got a lot of support from the county. It unified this city and this county, and we got a lot of support from Indian River County and Okeechobee County. Some of those people are as upset as the people here," Mayor Linda Hudson said.

More to come from Fort Pierce

The commissioners all hinted at exciting, yet unspecified, projects on the horizon, and said the rejection by Brightline will motivate them to work harder on those projects.

"We've taken our hit, and it just encourages me to work harder, roll up our sleeves, work even more diligently to make sweeping improvements to the city with good planning and good development," Broderick said. "For some reason the negativity of that has inspired me to get out there and work harder and dig deeper and really make an effort."

Commissioner Curtis Johnson said residents should know that there are more opportunities than just Brightline.

"I just want to say to the citizens out there to remain encouraged and steadfast," Curtis Johnson said. "This has always been a resilient city, and we shall continue to move forward. I'm very optimistic about things, and they always have a way of working themselves out."

Frustration and anger give way to motivation

Of all of the commissioners, Arnold Gaines voiced the most frustration, describing himself as "upset" and "mad." Even those words, he said, were him holding himself back, as he repeatedly deferred to Brown's earlier statements. Gaines did say that "common sense" would have been to put the station in Fort Pierce, roughly in the middle of the Treasure Coast, which left him wondering what factors he could be missing.

Gaines, too, said he has turned those negative feelings into motivation.

"This has motivated me. I went back to looking at my notes from our strategic planning, and I'm ready to push every last one of those items that we agreed to," Gaines said.

Initial story: Brightline to build new Treasure Coast station in downtown Stuart, city officials say

Timeline: Brightline could open new Stuart station in 2026, two years sooner than expected.

'Let's get serious'

Specifically, Gaines said, he wants to see progress on some of the large projects in the city that have been announced, or even approved, but are not complete.

"To our contractors who are working with us, let's get serious. I'm not calling any names out, but I want to see some shovels in some dirt on some hotels. I want to see what we're saying we're doing," Gaines said. "Time out for all of the talking. If you're not going to put shovels in the ground, let us know so that we can find somebody that's going to put shovels in the ground."

Work of city staff

Each of the commissioners and the mayor thanked City Manager Nick Mimms and staff for their work on the project, which, Jeremiah Johnson said, was ongoing until the news of Stuart's selection.

"I don't know what we could have done differently," Hudson said.

Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com and 504-331-0516.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Fort Pierce mayor, commissioners react to the Brightline Stuart stop