“Palm Beaching”: How changes are shaping Palm Beach County
“Palm Beaching”: From Boca Raton to West Palm Beach, from Wellington to Jupiter – how changes are shaping Palm Beach County.
The task of transforming downtown West Palm Beach, and ultimately all of Palm Beach County, now rests squarely with Vanderbilt University. The university received approval from city and county councils last week for a $50 million gift of prime downtown property. In return, the prestigious institution is committing to establishing a business school there.
West Palm Beach commissioners agreed to donate two acres, and the Palm Beach County Commission followed suit for the adjacent five acres, forcing county staff to negotiate a contract for a final vote in October. Kudos to the school for convincing commissioners of what could be an ambitious change for the county’s capital city.
The Post’s opinion on Vanderbilt: West Palm Beach’s own Wall Street is becoming a reality. How would a Vanderbilt campus fit into that?
Since a similar plan with the University of Florida fell through, local real estate developers like Related Cos. and Frisbie Group have been pushing for Vanderbilt to fill the void. They have used their contacts in the business world and spoken to elected officials about their plan to bring the private university to West Palm Beach. Giving up valuable state property proved to be the biggest stumbling block and more of a dealbreaker for Vanderbilt.
“If the community wants us, one way we can show that is through joint investments,” Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier told Post reporter Alexandria Clough. “We need that 100 percent. That connection has to work for us.”
Given the size of the concession, should commissioners have worked harder for a better deal? For now, the question is moot, although the answer hovers somewhere between “would have” and “absolutely.” Without concrete guarantees, the benefits residents will get from Vanderbilt’s move to South Florida will largely be in the hands of the university and the business interests that support the proposals.
Campus could revitalize city center
Let’s face it. The proposal could be transformational. Vanderbilt has offered to build a new graduate school of computer science, financial technology and artificial intelligence. It would house more than 1,000 students and 100 faculty and staff in a complex of academic buildings, student housing and a parking garage, an estimated $520 million investment on the part of the university. Once completed, the campus will generate more than $7.1 billion in local economic activity over the next 25 years, according to an economic impact study prepared by the university.
In return, the city and county commissioners are giving over $50 million worth of land to a private university with a $10 billion endowment and an estimated $100,000 annual tuition fee. The cost to the county is particularly high. The five acres are the only large, undeveloped parcel the county owns downtown. Any advantage county officials might have had to create affordable housing for workers and other pressing needs by either putting the land out to tender or simply selling it is now gone. In this contest between a promising proposal and an undefined alternative, the proposal won out.
Give the school credit. The idea of advanced education programs can help transform West Palm Beach into the “Wall Street of the South,” a status local economic development advocates have sought for years. All the school had to do was convince city and county commissioners to hand over valuable land that the school said it needed to make the business work.
In time, a downtown graduate school could attract the financial and technical talent and intellectual capital envisioned in the university’s economic impact statement. And university officials and supporters of the new school have a point when they insist that the possibilities for alternative uses of the site would not have the impact that Vanderbilt University’s expansion is expected to have on West Palm Beach and all of Palm Beach County.
The university was able to convince local authorities with the promise of a better future. Now it is up to the university to keep its promises and our district representatives must provide all possible guarantees in advance to ensure that this is the case.
