Jacksonville backs $20 million for UF campus in downtown. What's at stake for city?

Jacksonville took its first step Tuesday toward paying for a potential University of Florida graduate campus whose impact has brought comparisons to the city landing the Jaguars franchise and Mayo Clinic, even though the exact details of the school's academic programs and research activities remain to be determined.

City Council voted 16-1 on Tuesday for the city's commitment of $20 million, which would be the first installment of $50 million from the city over three years. Council member Al Ferraro voted in opposition.

Mayor Lenny Curry called it a "huge step forward in ensuring our stature as national healthcare and tech hub."

What brought UF and Jacksonville together?

The campus would put Jacksonville in the thick of fast-moving advances in artificial technology that UF has embraced. The main campus in Gainesville is home to HiPerGator AI, a supercomputer that is one of the most powerful in the world.

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Jacksonville is home to a large medical complex of hospitals, including UF Health, and financial technology companies.

UF Board Chairman Mori Hosseini, speaking to City Council immediately before its vote, said Jacksonville can be a partner for the university as it moves "new discoveries from the lab and into the real world."

"And that's why we're prepared to answer the call from many of our community leaders who have asked us to consider building a graduate and professional program in downtown Jacksonville," Hosseini said.

What's next for UF in rounding up the money?

Hosseini said that with City Council's support for local financing, UF can continue to pursue $50 million from the state Legislature during the current session that runs through May 5.

State Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, sponsored UF's request and has said it's possible the amount of state funding will be more than $50 million. House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, has said the "prospects of creating a hub for innovation and high-paying jobs are exciting."

In addition to city and state money, the third leg of the fund-raising stool will be at least $50 million in private gifts. UF has not provided any specific figures for how much has been pledged to date. Hosseini said the university also needs to obtain land at no cost for the education center.

"Without that local support, this project cannot move forward," he said. "The money raised for Jacksonville will stay in Jacksonville, just as money raised for Gainesville will continue to stay in Gainesville."

What will the academic mission be?

City Council amended the term sheet with UF to specify the graduate-level courses would come from UF Health, the College of Business and the College of Engineering. UF has not yet determined the specific graduate programs, but it would involve the use of technology such as AI.

The supercomputer called HiPerGator AI (the name is a mash-up of high-performing and the UF mascot) is helping UF teach AI in every part of the university's curriculum, not just the usual fields of computer science and engineering, UF officials have said.

Eric Deumens, the director of research computing at UF, has said HiPerGator AI can process data so fast that it could take 2,800 high-definition movies and watch them all in a second to answer questions such as who the actors were in all those movies.

UF wants to "create an AI-enabled workforce across the entire economy and democratize a technology that has the potential to solve some of the globe's most pressing problems and already is reshaping big segments of our economy," Vice President of Government and Community Relations Mark Kaplan told City Council members last week.

In the field of health care, for example, AI can help radiologists detect cancer by screening mammography results. Ascension St. Vincent's Riverside in Jacksonville enrolled patients in a global trial last year studying the use of AI in treating irregular heartbeats.

The Jacksonville campus also could feature graduate-level courses and research in financial technology. Fintech is a driver for some of the biggest financial companies in the city.

Heartland Forward, a non-partisan think tank, ranked UF as the second-best university in the nation at taking research and transferring it to the marketplace in a report released last year.

How big will the campus be?

UF has not given any details about the expected square footage of the buildings, but has said that by the tenth year of buildout of the campus, it will be big enough to serve more than 1,000 students.

UF has not decided on an exact location, other than it would be in the downtown area. City Council members amended the term sheet between the city and UF to specify the campus can be up to two miles from the outer boundaries of the community redevelopment area overseen by the Downtown Investment Authority.

When would construction start and finish?

The term sheet does not have a hard-and-fast date for when construction must start.

UF would have five years to finish the project after the school has obtained the land and permits that make it ready for ground-breaking.

The outer limit for the project is a 10-year term for the agreement.

What risk do city taxpayers have?

The city will be providing partial funding for the various stages the project will go through on its way toward construction. If UF ends up not building the campus, the term sheet does not have a provision for the city to claw back its money from UF.

City Council made changes to the term sheet to ensure that any funding by the city will be on a reimbursement basis for costs already incurred by UF, rather than the city sending money to UF and then reviewing the university's expenditures afterward.

"This deal changed 180 degrees in a matter of days," City Council member Ron Salem said. "I really believe the deal is so much better for us, and I think the university sees it that way as well."

City Council amended the term sheet to require UF to show it has secured at least $100 million in non-city funds for design and construction before UF could spend any of the city's money.

"We never get ahead of the money," city Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes said. "We're not the first in. We're essentially the last in the way that it's structured."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: City Council backs $20 million for UF graduate campus downtown