STUART, Fla. — Brightline will build a new intermediate station in Stuart, Fla., the TC Palm newspaper reports.
Stuart City Manager Mike Mortell informed employees on Monday that the passenger operator had selected Stuart’s downtown site near the Martin County Courthouse. Brightline did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
At least two other sites, both in Fort Pierce, Fla., were competing for the first intermediate station on Brightline’s Orlando-West Palm Beach segment, although the passenger service had declined to say if there were other offers [see “Fort Pierce, Stuart enter bids …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 24, 2023]. All three sites are within about 20 miles of each other in the “Treasure Coast” area of St. Lucie and Martin counties; Stuart is about 40 miles north of West Palm Beach.
Stuart’s proposal, made jointly with Martin County, calls for a $60 million station, with the city and county contributing $45 million. The county would donate the site to the city, which would lease it to Brightline at $1 a year for 80 years. The 2.4-acre site is currently a parking lot; it would be home of an approximately 9,000-square-foot station and a parking structure with 200 to 450 spaces.
When Brightline announced it was accepting station proposals, it said it would aim to complete permitting in 2025, start construction in 2026, and begin service in 2028.
Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson told the TC Palm that Brightline said Monday that no selection had been announced, and that it would notify all those who submitted proposals before making an announcement.
The decision is definitely weird. I’d have thought a station further North would get more commuter traffic, as Stuart is disproportionately retired rich people compared to, say, Fort Pierce. Hence the massive NIMBY campaign, because retired rich people have nothing better to do than try to make sure the rest of the world can’t have nice things.
And for similar reasons, while Stuart has been touting its downtown, it’s downtown is essentially a mall for rich elderly people disguised as a museum for what people of that age think was normal pre-Interstates. There are no development opportunities, FECI isn’t going to be able to build any housing developments nearby, because it’ll get slammed by Stuart’s NIMBY-driven anti-development policies. Again, the same is not true of Ft Pierce, which is desperate to see more development.
I live in Stuart, it’s good news for me I guess. If WFH ever ends for me I’ll at least have a commuter train option. But if I were at Brightline, even allowing for a “let bygones be bygones” attitude towards Stuart and Martin County’s ugly, dishonest, fraudulent campaign against Brightline, I’d have actually looked into why this county was the main center of the anti-train nutcase movement. While I genuinely believe a silent majority was in favor of it, that silent majority has no sway in local politics, and without a move away from NIMBYism by the current Martin County establishment, Brightline will have a tough time making a Stuart station profitable, between lower ridership compared to others, and the lack of development opportunities.
A rare wrong call by the best thing that’s happened to Florida in 50+ years.
There is a weird irony of a county that spent millions trying to block Brightline, “now with the city and county contributing $45 million” for a new station and service.
The biggest complaint was that the trains would stop traffic, but what does a train slowing to approach a station do? Interesting to see how they deal with the intersection of Ocean and Colorado.
Finally, where will the parking garage go? The lot on Flagler Ave.?