Vanderbilt to Anchor $500M Innovation Campus as West Palm Beach Booms with Development

The Palm Beach Business Development Board’s latest look at the local economy includes some major milestones:

One of the most notable is Vanderbilt University’s pledge to build a $500 million campus in the downtown area. That, the board said, will bring some 1,000 students per year to the school to study artificial intelligence, quantum computing and subjects in business innovation.

In a statement, the board said, “Students and professors will spark ideas, start-ups and collaborations that could that could bring fuel the next generation of transformative companies.

“What’s more,” the board said, “interns and graduates will create a steady stream of talent for leading employers. Those who launch new ventures will find support networks, accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces as well as capital and dedicated start-up infrastructure.”

Vanderbilt has recently released artist renderings for its West Palm Beach campus, which will focus on a rapidly-growing aspect of the business world today – artificial intelligence.

Vanderbilt aid that in the fall of 2024, it was granted five-acres of county-owned land and two-acres of city-owned land. The college has now set a fund-raising goal of $300 million, set by its board of trustees.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeir said in a statement that, “We are planning a unique learning and research environment that nurtures collaboration and innovation an is sustainable in all senses.”

David P. Manfredi, CEO of Elkus Manfredi Architects, which was selected as the designer of the new campus, described the project as a “living laboratory of South Florida landscape.” Manfredi said plantings will be used around the campus that are native to South Florida.

The campus will also include a state-of-the-art innovation hub that will be open to the public for entrepreneurial activity. “This will connect Vanderbilt to the booming growth in the Palm Beach region,” the college said.

In a further look at the economy, the board said that between 2008 and 2020, not a square foot of Class A space had been built in or around the city’s Central Business District, And, the board said, a decade ago, only about 6,000 people lived in and around the downtown area.

Matters are different today.

As of this year, more than one million square feet, led by feet of Class A space is in development, led  by Stephen Ross of Related Ross. The firm is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Class A office towers, luxury condos, and mixed-use community enhancing properties, such as parks and recreation centers.

The NORA district (North of Railroad Avenue) is being re-built with walkable sidewalks, retail shops. NORA has been an area that was ignored by developers for decades. New housing units are also being built there. NORA is all about $1 billion in development on about 40 acres of land. Here is also another key project in the area – the 26-story Ritz Carlton Residence, a condo project with 138 units.

And, plans have been filed for a 20-story apartment building near the public marina in Riviera Beach.

Developers are calling it Wall Street South – a mixed-use office block at 111 Olive Street, which is to include retail and office space.

Such growth, the development board said, must be accompanied by affordable housing, if young people are to remain in the area.

The board noted that in the past few years, more than 1,000 units of affordable housing have come on line. Thousands more, city officials say, are planned for the future.

West Palm Beach is to be a well-rounded city.

There will be more green spaces, waterfront restaurants that will join such cultural institutions as the Norton Museum of Art, the Kravis Center or the Performing Arts, and the Palm Beach Convention Center.