No shovels turned dirt Monday to mark the start of Vanderbilt University’s $500 million investment in downtown West Palm Beach.
That’s still to come.
Rather it’s the community’s investment in Vanderbilt that brought out the news cameras to CityPlace Monday morning for an announcement from Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier.
The first phase of fundraising, spearheaded by downtown developer Stephen Ross’ $50 million contribution, has drawn about $300 million, enough for Diermeier to declare: “Today, Vanderbilt makes its commitment clear. We are all in on West Palm Beach.”
The first phase went so well, Vanderbilt kicked off a second phase on Monday to raise an additional $250 million.
The money will help develop the campus’ signature features, academic programs, faculty recruitment, student scholarships and other initiatives, Vanderbilt said in a statement.
“We are now calling on the residents and businesses of South Florida, as well as our global Vanderbilt community, to invest with us in this bold project and all it will create for the Palm Beach area’s economy, workforce and innovation ecosystem,” Diermeier said at the Related Ross Experience Center on the former site of The Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
READ MORE: First Look: Vanderbilt University campus in West Palm Beach
This renewed commitment from Vanderbilt triggers the start of a series of actions: closing on the 7 acres east of Tamarind Avenue from Fern to Datura streets donated by Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach, completing architectural designs and breaking ground.
They have five to six years to develop the project but are moving faster than expected, Nathan Green, vice chancellor for government and community relations said in an interview. He said pledges so far total between $280 million and $340 million.
The graduate school campus continues to evolve, Green said. They’re now making plans for undergraduates to attend for a semester or two in a “study-away” program.
“We need to be constantly challenging assumptions,” he said.
Vanderbilt’s first campus outside of Nashville, Tenn., is in New York and it recently announced the Institute for Quantum Innovation in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Its West Palm campus is expected to focus on graduate education and research in finance, management, engineering, space technology, defense technology and business innovation.
“This partnership … elevates our national profile as a center for innovation,” West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James said at the event, “and helps ensure that the jobs of the future are being created and filled right here.”
In February, Vanderbilt announced that it hired Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston as lead architect. Howard Elkus, the company’s late co-founder, designed CityPlace.
Vanderbilt stepped in to the site in March 2024 after the University of Florida pulled out. That deal unraveled in February 2023 after UF and billionaire landowner Jeff Greene couldn’t agree to terms, including naming rights, for Greene’s donation of land, The Palm Beach Post reported. Around that same time, UF announced plans to build a graduate school in Jacksonville.
The Vanderbilt approach moves forward without the 5 acres Greene owns next to the city and county land. It is being championed by Ross, whose Related Ross owns CityPlace, where it is building two office towers to complement its ownership of several other signature downtown office buildings.
Ross attended Monday’s event but did not speak. In an August 2024 appearance before the Palm Beach County Commission, Ross touted Vanderbilt for cementing Palm Beach’s place as “the most important county in this country.”
“To do that, you need to have great schools. There’s no place that’s ever grown that doesn’t have great universities,” he said. “I equate this to really what occurred in the growth of Silicon Valley, where you had Stanford, you had all the money that was coming from San Francisco, and that created Silicon Valley and brought those great companies, those startups that started there and grew to be the giants in our country.”
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
