MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center

The MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center is the City of Port St. Lucie's own event venue at 9221 SE Event Center Place, the building formerly known as the Port St. Lucie Civic Center.

The city's facility page gives the address as 9221 SE Event Center Pl., Port St. Lucie, FL 34952 and the phone as 772-807-4488, and says tickets are sold exclusively at the center's own website or its box office (City of Port St. Lucie MIDFLORIDA Event Center page). Besides the rental halls, the page highlights an art gallery with exhibitions by local and regional artists and the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, which includes more than 60 memorabilia exhibits.

The city's event planning guide describes the MIDFLORIDA Event Center as a local, state and regional special event center of the City of Port St. Lucie, meant to showcase the community and bring it economic benefit, and lists banquets, meetings, conferences, weddings, expositions, tradeshows, concerts, performing arts, festivals and sporting events as the uses it is built for (MIDFLORIDA Event Center Event Planning Guide).

The Port St. Lucie Civic Center became the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center under a naming rights agreement the city finalized in December 2019, while the city kept ownership and operation of the building.

The city manager's newsletter of January 30, 2020 reported that the credit union would pay the City of Port St. Lucie $195,000 annually for five years for the naming rights, with an option for a five-year renewal, and that the city would retain ownership and operation of the center and keep expanding its special event, convention and entertainment business (PSL on the Pulse, January 30, 2020). The same issue listed where the new name would appear: above the main entrance, on the parking garage facing U.S. 1, in the main lobby and art gallery and ballroom entrance areas, and atop the Village Square concert stage.

The newsletter also tied the timing of the rebranding to the then recent completion of the new bridge on Crosstown Parkway, quoted as making the center more convenient to reach from Interstate 95 and points west. The city's FY 2023-24 adopted budget still lists the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Event Center among Port St. Lucie's own departments, with its own staff positions, including a director (City of Port St. Lucie FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget).

The MIDFLORIDA Event Center has 100,000 square feet under roof, two ballrooms, a lobby, an art gallery and the outdoor Village Square with a stage, and the whole facility can hold up to 3,000 people.

The city's event planning guide, which supersedes any version printed before March 2019, lists the main spaces and their largest set-ups as shown below (MIDFLORIDA Event Center Event Planning Guide).

The guide puts more than 19,000 square feet of column-free floor behind a movable, sound-proof wall system, lists the lobby at 6,420 square feet, the art gallery at 1,900, the plaza boardwalk at 3,665 and the front plaza at 27,657, and gives tradeshow capacity as 100 booths of 8 by 10 feet (MIDFLORIDA Event Center Event Planning Guide). For the Village Square, the guide's overview describes a 60 foot wide by 40 foot deep stage on 98,000 square feet of grounds, while its room chart lists Village Square and Stage at 38,000 square feet; the guide does not reconcile the two figures. Capacities may be lower once a stage, dance floor or food service is added, the guide warns.

Visitors to the MIDFLORIDA Event Center park in a six-story garage southwest of the building, in two surface lots or on nearby streets, with 1,502 public parking spaces listed in the parking section of the city's guide.

The event planning guide says the lots are reached from Welcome Lane, First Street and Main Street, lists 30 handicapped spaces, warns that vehicles longer than 19 feet need pre-planned arrangements, and notes that illegally parked vehicles in handicapped spaces may be ticketed or towed (MIDFLORIDA Event Center Event Planning Guide). Event loading uses the Emerald Ballroom dock on the south end and a circle loading area on the southwest corner reached from Civic Center Place.

By the guide's count, the center sits 5 miles from Florida's Turnpike and 10 miles from Interstate 95, and the drive from Palm Beach International Airport is 58 minutes, or 52 miles; from Melbourne International Airport 76 minutes, or 67 miles; from Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport 1 hour 40 minutes, or 99 miles; and from Orlando International Airport 1 hour 49 minutes, or 122 miles (MIDFLORIDA Event Center Event Planning Guide).

Port St. Lucie stages several city festivals at the MIDFLORIDA Event Center, alongside concerts, exhibitions and private rentals.

The city's Special Events department lists Fall Fun Fest and the Port St. Lucie International Fest, Culture and Cuisine, at the MIDFLORIDA Event Center, 9221 SE Event Center Place, and the Festival of Lights, which it calls the city's signature holiday tree-lighting ceremony, at the same address (City of Port St. Lucie Special Events page). The Special Events page and the center's own calendar carry each year's dates.

The FY 2023-24 adopted budget shows what the venue's own staff planned that year: produce six concerts, produce the 4th of July Ultimate Experience and the 9-11 Memorial Service, host four artist gallery exhibitions and Boys and Girls Clubs summer camps, continue marketing the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and host its annual inductee event, and replace the carpet in the Emerald Ballroom (City of Port St. Lucie FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget).

The MIDFLORIDA Event Center is run as its own Port St. Lucie department, budgeted as department 7500 in the city's General Fund, whose stated goal is to raise revenue and cut expenses through event sales, production and staff efficiency.

The FY 2023-24 adopted budget says the department developed a five-year Strategic Business Plan aligned with the city's Strategic Plan, and that its work supports city goals for culture, nature and fun activities, vibrant neighborhoods, a diverse economy, high quality infrastructure and a high-performance government (City of Port St. Lucie FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget). The same budget includes one-time spending of $292,000 for upgrades to the MIDFLORIDA Event Center and adds one Event Specialist position to support event coordination and planning there.

The building is easy to confuse with the Port St. Lucie Community Center, a separate city facility at 2195 S.E. Airoso Blvd. whose 8,300 square foot banquet hall can be divided into smaller spaces (City of Port St. Lucie Community Center page); the Port St. Lucie Community Center guide covers that building. Rentals at the Event Center go through its own staff at 772-807-4488 (City of Port St. Lucie MIDFLORIDA Event Center page).

Last verified: October 22, 2026, after reading again the city's MIDFLORIDA Event Center and Community Center pages, the Special Events page, the event planning guide, the January 30, 2020 newsletter and the FY 2023-24 adopted budget for this Port St. Lucie guide.