Much-touted UF campus plan for downtown West Palm Beach dies, leaving huge disappointment

There will be no University of Florida graduate school campus in downtown West Palm Beach.

The state's flagship university this summer quietly ended plans for the Global Technology and Innovation Campus, quashing a venture that backers said would have elevated Palm Beach County's educational offerings and supercharged its growing finance and tech industries.

"This is probably the greatest economic development loss that I've seen in my 30-plus years of doing this," said Kelly Smallridge, president of the Business Development Board, the business recruiting arm of Palm Beach County.

The 12-acre campus, first announced in 2021, was supposed to offer graduate-level programs in business, engineering and law with a focus on financial technology, or fintech, and cybersecurity.

All would have been in combination with UF's cutting-edge artificial intelligence curriculum.

To create the campus, plans called for gifting UF roughly 2 acres from the city of West Palm Beach plus an additional 5 acres from Palm Beach County. The remaining 5 acres would come from Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene, who owns numerous downtown West Palm Beach tracts.

The campus was slated to extend from Datura Street south to Fern Street, and from South Tamarind Avenue east to South Sapodilla Avenue in a section of the city dubbed Government Hill. A fall 2026 campus opening was planned.

But UF and Greene couldn't agree on terms, including naming rights, for Greene's donation.

In February, The Palm Beach Post revealed that the campus plan had stalled. After the story came out, UF publicly announced it was "pausing" plans for the campus.

The Gainesville-based university said the West Palm Beach campus plan instead would be folded into a six-month strategic review of UF's programs under the leadership of its new president, former Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse.

At about the same time, UF moved forward with an effort to place a satellite graduate-level campus in Jacksonville, an effort that received $75 million in funding from state lawmakers this spring.

West Palm Beach campus Is University of Florida's grad school downtown campus in peril?

UF campus in West Palm Beach fizzled before UF finished critical review

But the West Palm Beach campus plan died well before the six-month review was completed, according to documents obtained by The Palm Beach Post.

In a June 14 email to a top county official, UF associate general counsel Colt H. Little said the land deal between UF and Palm Beach County had been terminated. Little told Isamí C. Ayala-Collazo, the county's director of facilities, that the university's own six-month review process was the reason UF could not comply with a May deadline for due diligence, agreed to by both the county and UF.

UF spokesman Steve Orlando on Tuesday confirmed that the campus pause led to the expiration of the land-conveyance agreement for the campus, as per the contract's terms. He did not respond to a question explaining why UF didn't try to extend or salvage the campus agreement so it could survive past the six-month review.

But Orlando kept open the door for some unspecified UF presence down the line.

"As we have said all along, UF is committed to being a unifying presence throughout the state — that's why we are evaluating opportunities in the West Palm Beach community and around the state," Orlando said.

County Administrator Verdenia Baker said the 5-acre county parcel will be earmarked for government expansion, as it was designated prior to the UF campus proposal.

Business and government leaders expressed deep disappointment that the UF expansion failed.

UF campus coverage: Jeff Greene: University offered to name West Palm graduate school after me. 'A deal's a deal.'

Smallridge said the campus plan's termination is a blow toward creating a more well-rounded business climate. "At the cornerstone of any great economy is a solid education and offerings, and UF certainly would have bolstered our economic development efforts," Smallridge said.

"It's clearly disappointing. We were all looking forward to it," said Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss.

Weiss added that he hopes that at some point UF might reconsider: "We're always hoping to hear back from them."

West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James also expressed regret.

“Although I have not been formally advised of this decision, I am not surprised," James said in a written statement. "It is unfortunate that the city and the county have missed out on what I still believe is a wonderful opportunity."

UF campus in West Palm once hailed as major boost to county's fortunes

When the UF campus plan first was announced two years ago, university and local government leaders said UF's presence would bring thousands of highly skilled graduate students to the area and attract even more companies and jobs.

Last year, the city and the county moved quickly to complete land agreements with UF to create the downtown campus.

But Greene expressed concerns about UF's commitment to the project. He then added various conditions to his portion of the land donation, including enrollment requirements. Greene said he wanted assurances the campus would feature at least 700 students, but UF correspondence to Greene said he wanted "1,000 students forever."

Greene said he also wanted UF to adhere to a promise to name the school after him. "A deal's a deal," Greene said this year.

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In a February 2022 letter to Greene, a top UF Foundation official had offered to name the school the Jeff Greene School of Technology and Innovation.

But UF backpedaled on the promise. In one letter to Greene, former UF President Kent Fuchs said if UF named the campus after Greene, it would hinder efforts to obtain other private donations for the school and other naming opportunities for would-be donors.

Fuchs instead offered to name a building after Greene, a proposal Greene rejected.

By October 2022, UF decided it could not come to terms with Greene's requirements for the donation. The university began negotiations to buy the land from Greene. The sale fell apart in December.

More: Is University of Florida's grad school campus in West Palm Beach in peril?

When UF announced in late February of this year that the campus plan was on hold, Greene struck a conciliatory tone and said he still hoped things could work out. "I don't care about a building. This was never about naming. It was about getting involved," he said.

Greene said he also wanted to meet with UF's Sasse to work out a deal.

But in an interview Monday, Greene said he never got the chance to meet the new president.

"They changed their minds," Greene said. "I said from the beginning, this new president, Ben Sasse, didn't want to do this project. When you hear there's a little disagreement, you meet people. You make it happen. I never met the guy in my life."

James even tried his hand at salvaging some type of university campus downtown.

In April, James told The Palm Beach Post that efforts were afoot to lure a top, private, out-of-state university in a bid to replace the stalled UF campus plan. "Conversations are taking place behind the scenes," the mayor said. "We have the land."

A city spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment this week about the status of that plan.

It's not clear if any other stakeholders would have wanted to join the mayor's would-be higher education venture.

Baker said the reason the county had agreed to donate its downtown West Palm Beach land to UF is because UF is a public, state university.

Where did $100 million in taxpayer money go?

In 2022, the Florida Legislature awarded UF $100 million for the West Palm Beach campus.

But the legislation contained a giant loophole. If the West Palm Beach campus didn't happen, the $100 million could stay with UF to use as it sees fit elsewhere in the state in a location outside Palm Beach County.

It's not clear where the $100 million will be used by UF now.

Orlando, the UF spokesman, said no decisions have been made about the money.

Alexandra Clough is a business writer and columnist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. Twitter: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: University of Florida campus plan for West Palm Beach "terminated"