A University of Florida Board of Trustees committee selected the area around the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center on Dec. 12 as the site for the university’s planned graduate center campus in Jacksonville.
The Committee on Governance, Government Relations and Internal Affairs voted unanimously to select the site and delegate authority to the university president and board chair to negotiate an agreement to convey the property. The full board will vote on the matter Dec. 13.
A presentation to the committee included renderings and conceptual site plans showing UF buildings immediately north of the Union Terminal Station and west to the Forsyth Street exit of Interstate 95.
Includes Florida Semiconductor Institute
A news release from the city of Jacksonville said the campus is expected to open the fall of 2026 and would include the Florida Semiconductor Institute.
The release said graduate degree offerings were being finalized, but areas under consideration include business management, data analytics, computer science with concentrations in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, law and biomedical and health sciences.
UNF says enrollment at the fully built-out campus could reach 20,000 or more.
Mayor Donna Deegan plans to work with the Downtown Investment Authority and City Council to provide 22 acres, the release said. With the Florida Semiconductor Institute as part of the campus, the administration will propose $50 million in city funding for the project on top of $50 million committed by City Council in the spring of 2023.
In a question-and-answer session at City Hall with reporters after the committee’s vote, Deegan said the initial conveyance would involve two vacant, city-owned properties adjacent to the convention center.
Additional properties
She said UF was working to secure a property other than those two, possibly an existing building, where it would begin offering classes in the fall of 2026.
UF had negotiated with JEA for a short-term lease of space on the fifth floor of the municipal utility’s headquarters building at 225 N. Pearl St., but a JEA spokeswoman said a deal had not been reached.
UF announced nearly two years ago that it planned to open a graduate school focusing on health and financial technology in Downtown Jacksonville.
Since then, $250 million in funding has been committed to the project, comprising $150 million from the state of Florida, the $50 million from the city of Jacksonville and $50 million from private donors.
Deegan said the campus would be “another monumental step towards Jacksonville being a national leader in the industries that will shape our collective future.”
Mori Hosseini, chair of the UF Board of Trustees, said: “Our goal is to create a national center of excellence and to bring our bright students to this forward-thinking city. We are grateful for our strong partnerships with the state, city, and community leaders – we are going to do big things together.”
Jacksonville 'on the forefront of innovation'
UF interim President Kent Fuchs said, “Jacksonville – like UF – is on the forefront of innovation.”
“This is a place where our students will create great change and help transform the industries of the future,” he said.
The property near the convention center was among three that had been publicly identified as sites being considered by UF, including the soon-to-be vacated Jacksonville Fairgrounds and land near the Florida State College at Jacksonville Downtown campus.
Deegan recommended the convention center site in a Dec. 5 letter to Fuchs and Hosseini. In the letter, she said the city would work with the university on terms of conveyance “so that design, planning, and construction can begin as quickly as possible in 2025.”
The Daily Record has requested details on the parcels under consideration from the city.
During the committee meeting, Hosseini commended Deegan, City Council members and Jacksonville business development officials for driving the project forward.
“The leaders of Jacksonville kept on pushing us, (saying), ‘Come on, let’s go,’” he said. “That’s so admirable. We all think governments are slow and never move. But they did an impressive job.”
Why LaVilla
Kurt Dudas, UF vice president for strategic initiatives, told committee members that the president’s office recommended the Prime Osborn site based partly on its proximity to interstates 10 and 95 and to businesses in Brooklyn and the Downtown core.
Other reasons included the nearby availability of public transportation out of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s headquarters, and the presence of public amenities such as Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park and the Emerald Trail Model Mile.
David Norton, UF vice president for research, said locating the Florida Semiconductor Institute in Jacksonville offered an opportunity for it to become a “world-class research facility” specializing in national security. Florida lawmakers approved $80 million for the institute this year.
“The accessibility of Jacksonville with direct flights into Washington, D.C., make it much more attractive for us to really build-out something new that will be competitive to what other universities across the country have already built-out in the area of national security,” he said.
Prompted by a question from Hosseini, Norton indicated the institute’s economic impact could eventually be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Jaguars reaction
The Jacksonville Jaguars issued a statement calling the committee’s vote “a moment of celebration” for team owner Shad Khan and his family. The Khan family donated $5 million toward landing the campus and had offered the 14.1-acre Fairgrounds property, which in 2022 it agreed to purchase.
“Growing Downtown Jacksonville to be a versatile center for commerce, education, entertainment and lifestyle is a priority for the Jacksonville Jaguars,” the statement read. “With today’s news from the University of Florida on the location of their graduate studies campus and Florida Semiconductor Institute, our downtown is one step closer to that reality.”
Demolition in future
Deegan said that eventually the newer portions of the convention center, not including the historic train station, could be demolished to make way for the campus. However, she told reporters that plans involving the demolition would be years away, allowing time for the city to develop a new convention center. likely at a site near the current Duval County jail.
“In terms of the convention center itself, that is probably 10 years down the road,” she said. “You’ll have another mayor to beat up on, probably, by that time.”
Conveying properties
Deegan said the city’s timeline called for the Downtown Investment Authority to vote in January 2025 on conveying the initial two properties.
The city said the DIA vote would be on six parcels, five of which make up one of the lots. The parcels are:
• 1017 West Bay Street, 0.06 acres
• 1015 West Bay Street, 0.06 acres
No specific street address are available for the following:
• West Forsyth Street, 0.66 acres
• West Bay Street, 0.30 acres
• West Bay Street, 0.25 acres
• West Bay Street, 2.29 acres
“At the end of the day, a lot of space that we’ve had sitting around doing nothing and providing no tax benefit to the city is going to be a vibrant part of our Downtown,” she said.
In March 2024, the State University System Board of Governors approved UF’s plan to establish the school.
UF followed up by negotiating with JEA for a short-term lease of space on the fifth floor of the municipal utility’s headquarters building at 225 N. Pearl St.
A JEA spokeswoman said Dec. 11 that no agreement had been reached.
The UF colleges participating in the establishment of the facility include the Warrington College of Business; the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering; the College of Medicine; the College of Public Health and Health Professions; the Levin College of Law; and the College of Design, Construction and Planning.
Plans unveiled in 2023
Plans for UF to establish the school in Jacksonville were unveiled in February 2023, long enough ago that two of the principals then are no longer involved. Mayor Lenny Curry’s term ended in July 2023 and UF President Ben Sasse resigned in July 2024 after 17 months on the job, the shortest term of any non-interim president in the university’s history.
Hosseini, a strong proponent of the proposed Jacksonville center, also took part in the February 2023 announcement and remains part of the board.
Sasse, a former Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, had touted the Jacksonville school as part of his vision to expand the university and turn it into an economic development engine for communities outside of Gainesville.
Sasse’s strategy involved partnering with businesses to apply research to real-world challenges and putting students closer to prospective employers.
In his resignation, Sasse cited concerns over his wife’s health.
Later, the Independent Florida Alligator reported that Sasse’s relationship with Hosseini had collapsed and that Sasse had more than tripled his office’s spending during his 17 months as president while directing millions of dollars of university funds into consulting contracts and positions for his political allies.
This story has been updated with additional information.