FL Commissioners OK Donating $12 Mil. Land To FL Vanderbilt Campus. Billionaire Ross Praises Growth

Photo byJbaker08, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Floridians who like to watch educational news may already know that Vanderbilt University is reportedly on its way to Florida. I've written about how billionaire Stephen Ross courted Vanderbilt to lure it to Florida and how it recently confirmed it intended to build a $520 million campus in the sunshine state. And now, it appears, that the University officially has a future home - as Palm Beach County has donated property toward the project.

The History Of Vanderbilt Coming To Florida: Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross began fundraising in the spring of 2024 to get an Ivy League school in Florida and he reportedly raised around $100 million toward those efforts.

In late August of 2024, Vanderbilt University proposed a $519.6 million campus in West Palm Beach that the University said could create around 35,000 jobs. The Palm Beach County Commission unanimously approved the proposal, but the land on which the campus would be built was still undefined. However, that has recently changed.

Support For A Florida Land Donation And Comparisons To Silicon Valley By Stephen Ross: Also in late August, Palm Beach County commissioners expressed support for a gift of 5 acres of downtown West Palm Beach land. The property, which was previously slated to be a UF campus, is reportedly valued at around $12.8 million. An additional vote will take place in October. The land would reportedly be limited to campus and complementary campus use.

Billionaire Stephen Ross expressed support for the project, saying:

“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. I believe it will occur here, as we bring these types of institutions here.”

The author is not affiliated with Vanderbilt University or any other educational system.