Tale of two campuses: UF hits pause in West Palm Beach while exploring Jacksonville

As Mayor Lenny Curry made arrangements to join University of Florida leaders for an announcement about possibly building a graduate-level campus he called a "generational game-changer" for Jacksonville, a similar UF school planned for West Palm Beach was on the rocks, even though the state Legislature already had committed $100 million for it.

The West Palm Beach Global Center for Technology Innovation was hailed last year as a way to fortify that city's success at becoming "Wall Street South" by bringing big-name financial firms to its downtown.

But by the time Curry and UF President Ben Sasse appeared together Feb. 7 at Jacksonville City Hall to say they were exploring a campus in Jacksonville for advanced technology in health care and financial services, the UF plan for the West Palm Beach campus was at a standstill.

State Legislature:UF requests $50 million for graduate campus in Jacksonville

West Palm Beach plans:UF campus West Palm Beach is on hold due to 'regrettable division' in the community

Nate Monroe:Behind closed doors, UF boosters pitch donors on potential Jacksonville campus

"We expect the window of opportunity for investment by the state of Florida in the campus will soon close if we aren't able to finalize the land," Ken Fuchs, who was UF president at the time, wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to a Palm Beach billionaire who had once agreed to donate land for the campus, according to The Palm Beach Post.

While movement on the West Palm Beach campus was grinding to a halt, talks between UF and Jacksonville officials were heating up. Two days after Fuchs wrote his letter, the top executive for JEA sent a letter to UF pledging JEA's support for $10 million of in-kind services for a Jacksonville campus.

After Curry joined Sasse and UF board chairman Mori Hosseini for their announcement, Curry filed legislation for $20 million from the city and UF requested $50 million from the state Legislature for a Jacksonville campus.

A month after the Fuchs' letter, UF said in a statement on Tuesday it was "pausing deliberations" about a West Palm Beach campus and had shifted consideration of it into a broader six-month review of UF's "priorities and opportunities."

Jacksonville, which came up short when it angled to win UF backing for the fintech campus that went to West Palm Beach, is where those talks are actively happening now.

City Council Auditor poses list of questions about UF project

The first decision point will come this month when Jacksonville City Council votes on committing $20 million as the first installment for $50 million over three years for creating the UF Health and Financial Technology Graduate Education Center. UF officials have been meeting this week with City Council members to discuss the project with them.

In anticipation of votes starting next week in council committees, the City Council Auditor's office sent the Curry administration a detailed list of questions seeking more information about the potential campus.

Basic information such as the size of the campus, its enrollment capacity, the graduate programs it will offer, and accreditation have not yet been finalized.

"We are currently working with UF on identifying reasonable deliverables," the administration said in response to the auditor's questions about what the university will provide in Jacksonville.

Curry has said the site remains to be determined but would be in the downtown area. The administration told the City Council Auditor that UF "may rent or own" the property for the campus.

The administration said the city's "return on investment" for its $50 million will be matched "at least dollar for dollar" by UF with the ultimate non-city commitment expected in the future to reach $150 million for a total $200 million project.

The administration did not provide any economic impact studies in response to the auditor's question about whether any have been done.

The administration said the UF campus would "generate high-paying jobs both during construction and upon completion that will have a positive impact on the economy for decades to come" while "boosting the city's talent pool" as graduating students go to work for Jacksonville companies.

The Curry administration did not have a figure for how many jobs would be created by the education center. "While the ultimate scope is not yet solidified, it is expected that this sizeable project will create many construction and ongoing jobs," the administration wrote.

The administration did not have a timeline for when UF would be required to start and finish the campus but said it is "open to setting a timeline" and is in discussions with UF about it for City Council consideration.

The City Council Auditor also recommended that any agreement with UF has a "clawback" provision that would require UF to return city money if the campus is not completed. The administration did not agree to a contractual clawback but said if city money were spent on the UF campus and it isn't completed, the city could review how much it provides annually to UF Health, which operates a medical center out of city-owned buildings on Eighth Street.

Florida Legislature still will decide on $50 million in state support

At the state level, Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, said the statement by UF on Tuesday has no impact on moving forward with seeking approval by the state Legislature for $50 million for a UF Health and Financial Technology Graduate Education Center in Jacksonville.

"Nothing will change with respect to my appropriation request form unless UF asks to abandon it," he said.

Duggan said his sense of the UF statement on Tuesday is it should end any speculation that UF's exploration of the Jacksonville campus has the effect "whether by design or not" of putting pressure on West Palm Beach officials to resolve disagreements about that campus.

Duggan said "one possible interpretation of that statement is a clear indication to the Jacksonville City Council members that the University of Florida is not playing the cities off against each other."

The Palm Beach Post reported that the state Legislature's $100 million award for the West Palm Beach campus requires UF to receive 12 acres of donated land for the new school.

Jeff Greene, a Palm Beach real estate magnate who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010 and Florida governor in 2018, had planned to donate 5 acres for a 12-acre campus in downtown West Palm Beach, but he said UF didn't follow through on a promise to name the campus after him, the Palm Beach Post reported.

According to Greene and a Jan. 31 letter from Fuchs to Greene, the school offered to just name one building after him. Greene told the Palm Beach Post no philanthropist would donate land worth $50 million and just have one building named for him.

The UF statement Tuesday said it was putting the West Palm Beach campus on hold because of "some regrettable divisions in the local community." UF said it is "committed to being a unifying presence throughout the state and does not want to divide communities we aim to serve."

"Discussions about the feasibility of a West Palm Beach project will now be folded into our larger, six-month strategic review of UF's programmatic priorities and opportunities," UF said.

Greene told the Palm Beach Post he will be meeting with Sasse this month and is willing to compromise in order to get the land deal done. Greene and UF had been in talks about UF buying his land but those collapsed in December.

"This whole thing is getting spun in a mean-spirited way against me," Greene said.

Jacksonville is making second run for UF campus

Jacksonville also was in the hunt for the UF fintech center before the Legislature and the university system selected downtown West Palm Beach as the future site for it, City Council members have said.

City Council member LeAnna Cumber, who is running for mayor, said during a September meeting of City Council that JAX Chamber has not done enough to recruit hedge funds to Jacksonville and the city also "lost our chance" to get the UF campus.

City Council President Terrance Freeman responded to her that Jacksonville had pursued being home to the UF campus. "It was very exciting and it had a ton of momentum," Freeman said. "But for some reason that momentum cooled, and I’m not quite sure that the chamber was responsible for the cooling of it."

In South Florida, the drive to bring the campus to West Palm Beach lined up $100 million in private donations along with contributions of government-owned land and $100 million from the state. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who is a wealthy real estate developer, said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post he pledged $50 million to UF for the campus.

Jacksonville doesn't have the same deep pool of millionaires and billionaires that Palm Beach County does. The fundraising goal is $50 million for a UF campus in Jacksonville. Supporters have been meeting with potential donors to try and get them on board.

John Baker, who is executive Chairman and CEO of FRP Holdings, a real estate company based in Jacksonville, is among those making pitches to potential donors. He said regions with high-tech companies like Silicon Valley in California, Austin in Texas and the Research Triangle in North Carolina all have universities that cultivate talented people for those jobs.

"To me, this is our chance to have that research university," Baker said "If we could get those kinds of students coming into the workforce out of school, we're going to attract technology companies like crazy to Jacksonville."

He compared it to Mayo Clinic choosing Jacksonville for a new medical center in the 1980s.

"It just looks to me like it's an opportunity we've got to grasp," said Baker, who serves on the JEA board.

JEA has already told UF it will be a financial partner if the campus were built in Jacksonville. In a Feb. 2 letter from JEA CEO Jay Stowe to UF Vice President Thomas Mitchell, Stowe said JEA stands ready to provide total investment of $10 million in in-kind goods and services for what Stowe called a "transformative project."

That letter discussed items in an area just north of downtown. UF has not announced a specific site other than it would be in the downtown area. Stowe said JEA's support is not tied to any particular location of a future campus.

"It matches up with our strategy for economic development to support all of Northeast Florida and downtown, so it seems like the right thing for us to be involved," Stowe said.

Possible UF campuses not identical for Jacksonville and West Palm Beach

While the potential UF campuses in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville have in common that they would be built outside the university's main campus in Gainesville, they wouldn't have identical fields for research and degrees.

In the appropriation request filed by Duggan, UF said the Health and Financial Technology Graduate Education Center in Jacksonville would specialize in "solutions-based programs" developed by UF Health, which already has a medical center in Jacksonville, and the UF colleges of business and engineering.

The center will boost biomedical and artificial intelligence technologies, health care safety and quality for patients, health care administration and fintech, according to the appropriations request. Fintech is the use of technology in financial services.

The UF campus in West Palm Beach would not have a medical dimension to it, according to budget documents submitted a year ago when the Legislature put up $100 million for it. That campus would focus on artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity and fintech with involvement of UF colleges of engineering, business and law.

While City Council swings into debate over $20 million for a potential UF graduate campus, a separate piece of legislation would put $10 million of city money toward building an emergency department and trauma center at UF Health Jacksonville's medical campus on Eighth Street.

The state Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis previously put up $80 million from the state for the emergency department and trauma center, which will be named after the late Leon Haley Jr., who was CEO of UF Health. The city's funding would be on top of the state's money.

If approved by City Council, the $10 million would boost the total commitment by the city over six years to $130 million for renovations and other improvements at the Eighth Street campus where UF Health uses city-owned buildings.

Jacksonville also makes an annual contribution to support day-to-day operations of UF Health Jacksonville so it can be a safety net hospital for poor residents needing medical care. This year's city budget sends about $40 million to UF Health for that purpose, an amount that is higher than usual because it includes $10 million in federal pandemic relief money.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UF differs on Jacksonville and West Palm Beach campuses