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Vanderbilt’s West Palm Beach campus must meet public needs

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Vanderbilt hopes to open a new business school and a college of computer science and artificial intelligence in downtown West Palm Beach.

Here we go again. Officials at another prestigious university want to bring a business school to downtown West Palm Beach. This time it’s Nashville-based Vanderbilt University, which envisions a thriving campus of 1,000 students on five acres of public land that was earmarked for the University of Florida.

The benefits are obvious. The proposed campus would create a workforce that would bring Palm Beach County’s largest city closer to the status of the “Wall Street of the South,” a goal of local business interests, particularly the area’s two main developers, The Related Companies and the Frisbie Group of Palm. Beach. The introductions between the university and government officials have taken place. But hyping the benefits is the easy part. It’s the details that ensure a new business school benefits the university, its member companies and the broader community.

Higher education comes to Palm Beach County: Could Vanderbilt University take over land once earmarked for UF in West Palm Beach?

To our local elected officials, the next steps should be clear: It is the residents of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County who should be the priority in any proposal to bring a business school to West Palm Beach. Moreover, there is only so much that local officials and proponents of the Vanderbilt plan must keep behind closed doors. Give the local Vanderbilt alum credit for initiating the idea, but public involvement and acceptance are necessary to complete the deal.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Last year, the University of Florida proposed a much-touted plan to open the Global Technology and Innovation Campus in West Palm Beach. It didn’t happen. The state’s flagship university inexplicably withdrew, dashing hopes of helping the area’s fledgling financial and technology industries. The UF debacle should not deter local leaders from ensuring West Palm Beach reaches its potential.

‘Wall Street of the South’ is all about a new business school

Vanderbilt University is a private research university offering a full range of bachelor’s, master’s, and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges on its campus in Nashville, Tennessee. The university has a $10 billion endowment and many wealthy alumni and business leaders, including Cody Crowell, managing partner at Frisbie Group in Palm Beach, who is credited with coming up with the idea to make a Vanderbilt campus a reality.

Vanderbilt hopes to open a new business school and a college of computer science and artificial intelligence in downtown West Palm Beach. University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier visited Palm Beach County earlier this month and laid the groundwork. He met with several government officials and attended a fundraiser at the home of Stephen Ross, chairman and founder of Related Companies in Palm Beach. Gov. Ron DeSantis attended the meeting, which reportedly raised $100 million for the new campus.

“We thought about a possible second campus for a while, and it became clear that South Florida, and West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, would be a great location,” Diermeier told Post reporter Alexandra Clough.

Public input can start on the issue of the site itself. Is the seven acres of taxpayer-owned land worth donating to Vanderbilt? Downtown property is extremely valuable; the provincial parcel alone – five of the total seven hectares – is worth $40 million. The university may feel that a donation is justified given the benefits that a campus brings. However, that decision should be left up to the people who own the land: the city and county taxpayers.

There is also a state law that generally requires counties to bid competitively on the sale or lease of real estate to ensure taxpayers get the best possible deal, an apparent disincentive to simply going with Vanderbilt. The words “generally” carry weight because there are exceptions to the bidding requirements in economic development cases. But who says there aren’t better opportunities in a competitive bid from another university? How else can the public get a sense of the value of the Vanderbilt campus?

To be clear, the positives are hard to ignore. The location is centrally located and would boost the local economy with highly educated graduates. Their skills can fuel existing businesses and attract new ones. But process and transparency matter as local officials and their constituents sift through the details to determine which proposals best meet community needs. Those who make a deal a reality must remain open to the options and open to the public.

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