Where the University of Florida failed, enter Vanderbilt University.
The chancellor of the small, private Nashville, Tenn., school has scheduled meetings April 1 with Palm Beach County commissioners to talk about bringing a university satellite campus to downtown West Palm Beach.
The campus would be built on seven of the 12 acres offered in the aborted 2021 effort to woo a University of Florida graduate campus— minus the land owned by billionaire developer Jeff Greene.
Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier will be accompanied by lawyer and lobbyist Harvey Oyer in private meetings with commissioners.
The proposal is hush-hush. No details have been released. Oyer didn’t return phone calls.
County Mayor Maria Sachs has it on her calendar. She said she didn’t know specifics but welcomed the university’s attention.
“You can see how good we are if a top-notch university wants to come here,” she said. “If we have the land and what they need, we’ll continue the conversation.“They can choose to go anywhere. They chose to be in the conversation with us to come here. It’s impressive. We should be proud of that.”
A Vanderbilt spokesman said: “We don’t have any information to share, but we’re always exploring new opportunities to expand our impact and further our mission.”
Vanderbilt is named for shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who endowed the school with $1 million in 1873 to help heal the wounds of the nation’s Civil War. It is known for selective admissions. Its alumni, faculty and staff include six Nobel Prize laureates.
One detail that seems set: Vanderbilt is contemplating only the land owned by the county, about 5 acres, and the city, 2 acres.
Greene, who is building twin 30-story towers nearby, said he had heard rumblings but hadn’t been approached.
He welcomed Vanderbilt: “Any university as prestigious as Vanderbilt would be great for our community,” he told Stet News.
Oyer often represents developer Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins owner who pledged $50 million to bring UF. The mostly vacant proposed site is next to The Square, where Ross’ Related Co. is tearing down stores and restaurants to build high-rises.
Related is downtown’s biggest builder and would benefit from the increased prestige and educational opportunities a high-ranking university would bring. Greene is downtown’s second-largest builder and often competes with Related for market share and tenants.
The UF deal called for Greene to contribute 5 acres he owns along Sapodilla Avenue from Datura to Fern streets for a business-oriented graduate school. The city and county agreed to contribute land west of Greene’s property, stretching to Tamarind Avenue. The result would have been a campus on two square blocks in an area dubbed Government Hill that had long been held for county expansion.
The deal unraveled in February 2023 after UF and Greene couldn't agree to terms, including naming rights, for Greene's donation, The Palm Beach Post reported. Around that same time, newly installed UF President Ben Sasse announced plans to build a graduate school in Jacksonville.
This story was originally published by Stet Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
