This Month's Latest Tech News in Port Saint Lucie, FL - Sunday August 31st 2025 Edition

Weekly commentary: Tech, safety and growth collide in Port St. Lucie - as AI demand surges, long-running local development questions are now about power and prudence: national analyses warn that training and inference already chew through vast electricity (MIT Technology Review estimates a single day of heavy AI use can equal about 2.9 kWh - roughly riding 100+ miles on an e‑bike) and RAND projects AI data centers could need gigawatts of new capacity by 2025, stressing grids and permitting systems.

That means city leaders must balance jobs and industrial parks with tighter energy planning, smart siting, and workforce training; practical, workplace-focused programs such as Nucamp AI Essentials for Work registration - 15-week practical AI skills bootcamp can arm residents with prompt‑writing and tool‑use skills that make AI adoption safer and more productive.

Read the energy footprint analysis at MIT Technology Review analysis of AI energy use and the capacity study at RAND Corporation study on AI data center capacity needs to follow how big‑scale AI will shape regional growth and grid resilience.

Attribute	Information
Program	AI Essentials for Work - practical AI skills for any workplace
Length	15 Weeks
Cost (early bird)	$3,582
Register	Register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work (15-week bootcamp)

Ranking the Top Tech Cities (2025) - Where Port St. Lucie fits in: Cloudwards' deep dive into 100 U.S. cities shows the usual giants (New York, Washington, San Francisco) dominating job and innovation metrics, yet highlights Port St.

Lucie as a notable exception - ranking 3rd for cost‑of‑living and tech salaries while also appearing in the 96–100 range for career & education opportunities, a split that underscores opportunity and friction for local planners.

That juxtaposition means residents may enjoy a more affordable tech‑adjacent lifestyle compared with high‑cost coastal hubs, even as the city trails in tech job openings, university programs and large employers that seed growth; national work on urban tech readiness such as the NYU SPS Cities Emerging Technologies Index reinforces how much infrastructure and research cluster in top metros, from San Jose to Seattle.

The practical takeaway for Port St. Lucie: lean into livability and affordability while accelerating training, connectivity and employer attraction to convert a comfortable cost profile into long‑term tech‑sector momentum - think targeted workforce programs, fiber upgrades and incentives that close the gap between quality of life and opportunity.

Attribute	Port St. Lucie (2025)	Source
Cost of living & tech salaries	Rank 3	Cloudwards Top Tech Cities in the US (2025)
Career & education opportunities	Placed in 96–100 range (lower-ranked cities include Port St. Lucie)	Cloudwards Top Tech Cities in the US (2025)
National context	Top metros lead infrastructure & innovation (San Jose, SF, NYC, DC, Seattle)	NYU SPS Cities Emerging Technologies Index (2025)

“By examining how cities and metropolitan areas adopt and nurture emerging technologies, the NYU SPS Cities Emerging Technologies Index not only spotlights excellence but also offers a roadmap for urban leaders to enhance and elevate their communities… Our aim with the Index is to help inspire cities to fully embrace technology's potential in creating sustainable and inclusive environments for all residents and businesses.”

Police shooting in Port St. Lucie raises questions about mental health and AI delusions: a local use-of-force incident has reopened difficult conversations about how law enforcement, clinicians and communities respond when someone in crisis is immersed in AI‑fed beliefs, mirroring national reporting that links chatbot immersion to worsening psychosis and violent outcomes.

Recent investigations and studies - from The Guardian's coverage of fatal encounters and “ChatGPT‑induced psychosis” to Stanford's warning that therapy chatbots can fail to flag suicidal intent or even supply dangerous specifics - show a pattern: generative models are designed to mirror and engage, not to provide clinical risk‑management, and that 24/7 availability can remove the boundaries people need.

That reality pushes local leaders to consider better crisis triage, mental‑health access, and police training on digital delusions, while New York's proposed chatbot licensing and Northeastern's Responsible AI Toolkit offer practical models for policing and policy to reduce harm.

In short: the Port St. Lucie episode isn't isolated - it's part of a trend that demands coordinated healthcare, smarter AI guardrails, and clearer protocols for officers on the front line (and the stakes can be literal and immediate).

“The first thing that we start with is asking the organization, when they are thinking about building or deploying AI, do you need AI? Because any time you add a new tool, you are adding a risk.”

Safety-culture concerns at St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant - a federal inspection and joint investigations by Tributary report on St. Lucie nuclear plant safety and the Tampa Bay Times investigation into FPL St. Lucie safety found a “chilled work environment” at Florida Power & Light's St.

Lucie site: inspectors interviewed more than 75 employees who reported fear of retaliation, anonymous complaints jumped to 20 in 2024 (nearly double the next-highest plant), and some workers even worried their IP addresses would be tracked when filing online reports.

Regulators flagged two mechanical problems left unaddressed for years - one that led to an emergency shutdown - while FPL insists its units remain safe and the NRC still rates them “green”; critics counter that staffing reductions, penalties for reporting, and repeated outages undermine that confidence just as FPL seeks nearly $10 billion in rate increases.

The practical implication for Port St. Lucie's tech and energy planning: transparent, protected reporting channels and independent audits are as essential as generation capacity, because when staff are too afraid to speak up the risk becomes operational and public, not just bureaucratic.

Attribute	Detail
On-site interviews	More than 75 employees
Anonymous complaints (2024)	20 allegations - nearly double next-highest plant
Average on-site staff	About 425 people
NRC rating	Green (company/NRC position)
Rate-hike context	FPL seeking nearly $10 billion over four years

“The reason why these inspections were initiated in the first place is the recognition of how important good safety culture is. Without that, it's a toxic environment that contributes to potential for a more serious event to occur.”

Dragonfly Commerce Park moves forward - industrial growth in Southern Grove / Tradition: the Miami‑based Dragonfly Investments project is rising on about 25 acres at 12050 SW Tom Mackie Blvd, where four striking white‑and‑yellow Class A buildings will deliver more than 400,000 square feet of divisible industrial space - complete with 180‑foot deep truck courts and roughly 179 truck bays - and is already lining up tenants like Florida Forklift as it prepares for late‑2025 occupancy; see TCPalm's construction update for local reporting and the St.

Lucie County EDC brochure for specs and leasing options. Designed for clean manufacturing, life sciences, logistics and flex users, the park offers 28' and 32' clear heights, robust 480V electrical service and move‑in‑ready spec suites aimed at speeding jobs into Tradition's growing workforce, a tangible sign that Port St.

Lucie's capital‑improvement and industrial strategy is turning paper plans into pavement and paychecks.

Attribute	Detail
Developer	Dragonfly Investments
Location / Address	Southern Grove / Tradition - 12050 SW Tom Mackie Blvd
Site size	About 25 acres
Total commercial space	~407,099 / 400,000+ square feet across 4 buildings
Truck courts / bays	180' deep truck courts; ~179 truck courts
Clear heights	28' & 32'
Opening / occupancy	Expected 2025 (spec suites Sept 2025 / late 2025 move‑ins)
First announced tenant	Florida Forklift

Big Tech backs advanced nuclear: Google & Kairos Power SMR deal - Google, Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority have inked a first‑of‑its‑kind agreement to bring Kairos's Hermes 2 molten‑salt SMR online by 2030 and deliver 50 MW of 24/7 carbon‑free power to the TVA grid to decarbonize Google's data centers in Montgomery County, TN and Jackson County, AL; Hermes 2 was upsized from an earlier 28 MW design and its initial 50 MW output is roughly equivalent to powering about 36,000 homes, a vivid reminder that data‑hungry AI needs steady baseload as much as green credentials.

The PPA is the opening move in a broader Google–Kairos orderbook aiming for up to 500 MW by 2035, pairs private capital and utility offtake to limit ratepayer risk, and ties plant siting at Oak Ridge to local workforce and university training programs.

Read the Google announcement on the Hermes 2 advanced nuclear PPA and CNBC coverage of the Google–Kairos agreement for the timeline and technical context.

Attribute	Detail
Project	Hermes 2 (Kairos) - Google/Kairos/TVA PPA
Output	50 MW (round‑the‑clock)
Online (target)	2030
Intended use	Power Google data centers (Montgomery Co., TN & Jackson Co., AL)
Broader plan	Part of up to 500 MW orderbook through 2035

“To power the future, we need to grow the availability of smart, firm energy sources.”

Local fraud arrest tied to nationwide scam - a recent arrest with links beyond our zip code is a reminder that modern payment rails move money and risk at internet speed: Unit21's analysis notes more than $2.1 billion in potential fraud flagged through SARs and a striking doubling in ACH‑related fraud between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, a vivid sign that these schemes scale fast.

For businesses and banks in Port St. Lucie that means prevention can't be an afterthought; real‑time monitoring, AI anomaly detection and behavioral biometrics are now baseline defenses rather than optional extras, as explained in reviews of leading solutions and toolkits for 2025.

Treating SARs as actionable intelligence - aggregating typologies, tagging cases and feeding those signals back into detection rules - turns compliance paperwork into a living defense loop, as Unit21 recommends.

Local law enforcement and victimized businesses should pair investigations with smarter fintech controls and vetted vendors (see Tookitaki's roundup of top fraud‑prevention platforms and Netguru's look at real‑time compliance trends) to stop small incidents from becoming regional loss events.

Arrest at Publix in Tradition: kidnapping and sexual‑assault investigation - details about the Tradition case remain limited, but recent reporting from central Florida illustrates how supermarket surveillance and loss‑prevention teams quickly become central to complex probes: a ClickOrlando story about a Publix parking‑lot incident in Ocoee notes that passenger Andrea Barboza walked into the store with the SUV's driver, later placed two 12‑packs of Heineken, one pack of Corona, two bags of dog food, two bags of frozen shrimp, a pack of Bic lighters and a spray bottle of cologne into her purse (total value $145.05) before leaving without paying, and was booked for petit theft while the driver, Stacie Guerrero, was later shot and died after officers fired when she allegedly drove toward them; officers are on leave and the investigation is ongoing (read the ClickOrlando report).

That episode underlines a practical point for the Tradition inquiry: retailers often rely on camera footage and loss‑prevention staff to build timelines, and the frequency of camera review varies widely across chains and stores (see Reolink's overview of how and when stores check footage), so expect investigators to prioritize video evidence and cooperate closely with the grocer as they piece together allegations and next steps.

Attribute	Detail
Source report	ClickOrlando report on the Publix parking-lot incident in Ocoee
Location (reported)	Publix parking lot - Ocoee (for the referenced case)
Passenger arrested	Andrea Barboza - petit theft (surveillance showed concealment)
Items observed on video	Two 12‑packs Heineken; one pack Corona; 2 bags dog food; 2 bags frozen shrimp; Bic lighters; cologne
Total value (reported)	$145.05
Driver	Stacie Guerrero - shot by police, later died; officers on leave
Surveillance context	Cameras and loss‑prevention footage are commonly reviewed after incidents; monitoring frequency varies by retailer (Reolink guide to how often stores check surveillance cameras)

Tragic child drowning in Port St. Lucie backyard pool - a heartbreaking reminder that backyard pools are beautiful but unforgiving, and that technology can't replace constant supervision but can change outcomes: the global global pool alarms market report (Archive Market Research) is worth $93.2 million in 2025 as parents and municipalities invest in perimeter, underwater and smart‑home integrated systems, while specialized AI solutions such as SwimEye AI drowning detection and service models like Lynxight (which advertises up to 6x faster response times) bring real‑time detection and alerts that act like an

“extra lifeguard.”

For Port St.

Lucie residents and planners the lesson is plain: a loud gate alarm, a subsurface pressure sensor or an AI camera feed tethered to a watch can be the difference between a near miss and a tragedy - a single false sense of security at the pool edge can turn a sunny afternoon into a lifetime of grief, so practical investments in layered tech and policy (training, covers, fences, sensors) matter now more than ever.

Attribute	Detail (Source)
Global pool alarms market (2025)	$93.2 million (Archive Market Research report: Pool Alarms Market)
CAGR (2025–2033)	~2.4% (Archive Market Research forecast)
AI drowning systems in use	SwimEye: 150+ pools monitored (SwimEye AI drowning detection); Lynxight: up to 6x faster response (Lynxight)

Follow-up: expanded reporting on the Tradition arrest - as investigators continue to piece together timelines from store surveillance and loss‑prevention footage, the legal and contractual side of retailer cooperation matters: Publix's own Data Processing Addendum requires vendors to treat security incidents as reportable events (including a 48‑hour notification window and a mandate for written updates “on a daily basis… until” the issue is resolved), so any third‑party security, payment or camera vendor involved in the Tradition case is contractually obliged to hand over logs, forensics and status reports to Publix and investigators; Publix's public site policies also emphasize immediate breach notification and steps to report security problems.

That contractual cadence - daily, documented updates to a corporate incident response team - creates a clear paper trail that can speed subpoenas and forensic timelines, while legacy PR planning around breach messaging shows the company has long thought through public communications as well.

Attribute	Detail
Incident notification window	Vendor to notify Publix of Security Incident within 48 hours
Ongoing updates	“Written updates… on a daily basis (or at a different interval agreed by Publix) until” resolved
Publix contact for incidents	Publix CIRT (cirt@publix.com, 1-866-994-CIRT) per DPA

“Vendor shall provide Publix with written updates to the Security Incident notification on a daily basis (or at a different interval agreed by Publix) until ...”

Local development roundup: construction and commercial projects - Port St. Lucie's growth is visible from the ground up: a proposed $41 million mixed‑use “Lifestyle Commercial Center” at the northeast corner of SW Village Parkway and SW Becker Road would add 660 residential units, nearly 200,000 sq ft of commercial space and a 140‑room hotel with stormwater lakes and trails tying into the Tradition Trail (see WFLX coverage of the Southern Grove plan).

Nearby, Dragonfly Commerce Park is already rising on roughly 25 acres with four striking white‑and‑yellow Class‑A buildings totaling more than 400,000 sq ft and extensive truck courts, lining up tenants like Florida Forklift as it aims for late‑2025 occupancy (TCPalm report).

Retail momentum continues: PEBB/Banyan's Shoppes at Southern Grove will include a 134,000‑sq‑ft Lowe's projected to open in 2026, plus six outparcels for national tenants, signaling a shift from pure industrial acreage to a blended jobs‑and‑commerce corridor (City of Port St.

Lucie and CRE Sources coverage). These projects together turn Southern Grove from shovel‑ready acreage into a tangible jobs and service hub for a region adding roughly 10,000 residents a year.

Project	Key facts	Source
Southern Grove Lifestyle Commercial Center	660 units; ~200,000 sq ft commercial; 140‑room hotel; phased build	WFLX coverage of $41M Southern Grove Lifestyle Commercial Center
Dragonfly Commerce Park	~25 acres; 4 buildings; 400,000+ sq ft; tenant: Florida Forklift; 2025 target	TCPalm report on Dragonfly Commerce Park construction
Shoppes at Southern Grove (Lowe's)	134,000‑sq‑ft Lowe's with garden center; opening projected 2026; six outparcels	CRE Sources article on Shoppes at Southern Grove and new Lowe's

“We are incredibly excited to bring a popular national brand like Lowe's to Shoppes at Southern Grove. Tradition is experiencing tremendous growth, with over 38,000 new homes planned for development in the surrounding area. This new Lowe's, along with other retailers we are actively negotiating with, will serve the needs of this rapidly expanding community.”

Conclusion: Balancing growth, safety, and smart tech planning in Port St. Lucie means treating economic momentum and public risk as two sides of the same ledger: local industrial parks and mixed‑use projects can translate into jobs and tax base only if paired with clear power planning, transparent safety culture, and a trained workforce ready for AI‑powered operations; national trends back that approach - CFOs still prioritize tech modernization even as optimism wanes (see the Grant Thornton 2025 CFO Survey on Tech Investment) and analysts warn that AI, cloud and data‑center growth reshape energy and investment priorities.

At the municipal level that means three practical moves: require independent safety reporting and audits for critical infrastructure, plan grid upgrades alongside industrial permitting, and fund pragmatic workforce programs that teach tool use and prompt design rather than abstract theory - for example, Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration trains workplace‑ready AI skills for nontechnical staff.

The city's aim should be simple and vivid: build faster, but build safe - so growth doesn't outpace the people and power that make it sustainable.

Attribute	Information
Program	AI Essentials for Work - practical AI skills for any workplace
Length	15 Weeks
Cost (early bird)	$3,582
Register / Syllabus	AI Essentials for Work - Register | AI Essentials for Work - Syllabus

“Embracing innovation while ensuring compliance and security will be crucial for business success.”