PORT ST. LUCIE — When city leaders celebrated the grand opening of the Port District at Port Fest earlier this month, much of the focus was on the new Pioneer Park playground and other completed parts of the area such as the bandshell and lawn.

Other planned elements of the Port District, though, will have to wait for future celebrations when they’re done.

A food and drinks destination

The River Food Garden is the largest unfinished part of the Port District, and SuDa development group hopes it will become a dining destination, bringing people from across the Treasure Coast to the North Fork of the St. Lucie River.

Planned is a complex of seven bars or restaurants, a firepit and riverfront access. Plans include a tiki bar — spelled “tequi bar” — a main restaurant with a rooftop bar, a pizzeria, grill, another bar and Asian and Mediterranean restaurants. SuDa Founding Managing Partner Gaurav Butani said the search process is ongoing for potential restaurateur partners to operate the different sites.

Butani said the city is still completing work there before it hands things over to SuDa. City spokesperson Sarah Prohaska said the project is going through permitting.

In the meantime, Butani said, SuDa has been doing architectural and engineering work in the hopes that it can begin construction right away.

“We’ve been working very hard, and so has the city. The city has been doing everything possible to get our construction permits done,” he said.

While cautioning that construction timelines can be fluid, Butani said he could see River Food Garden opening by late next year. But it’s also possible the restaurants could open in phases, and aspects such as the tiki bar could open earlier.

Houses will teach Port St. Lucie history

The two existing buildings in the Port District complex will remain and go through their own process of renovation and restoration. Both will be operated by the Port St. Lucie Historical Society.

The Peacock House, built in 1917, will “for the most part” be a static display of a 1920s house, Historical Society chair Patricia Christensen said in an email. It will “show people what living in Florida was like back then,” she Christensen said.

Renovations there could take three years, Christensen said.

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The other building, The Peacock Lodge, was built in 1952 and will house the Port St Lucie History Museum and Education Center. The Historical Society does not yet have a certificate of occupancy, Christensen said, but it does have a permit to begin moving items into the building.

“We have been and will continue organizing and going through 60-plus years of records, files, collections and photos and getting things ready for a formal opening,” Christensen said.

That opening currently is scheduled for August, Christensen added.

Wicker Perlis is TCPalm’s Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Restaurants, bars and historical sites still in the works at port site