Vanderbilt University reaffirmed its intention Monday to build a version of its Owen School of Management in downtown West Palm Beach.
Along with the commitment, top university officials said they’re launching a second fundraising appeal, this time for $250 million after assembling sufficient funds to start a project that had a reported initial goal of $300 million.
The South Florida business school campus has been more than two years in the making for the Nashville,Tennessee-based university, which is among the highest-rated educational institutions in the country.
Vanderbilt’s chancellor, Daniel Diermeirer, made the announcement in the company of West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James and Palm Beach County Mayor Sara Baxter at the Related Ross Experience Center in the city’s downtown, not far from the site of the proposed 7-acre campus. The city last year donated 2 acres of land for the project; the county approved a donation of 5 acres. The land runs south from Datura to Fern streets along South Tamarind Avenue.
“Today it’s official: Vanderbilt is coming to West Palm Beach,” Diermeier said to applause at an early morning gathering of public and private sector community leaders, including donors and businesspeople. “Thanks to the remarkable generosity of our donors, we have secured support enabling us to proceed with our plans for a world-class graduate campus and innovation center in the heart of downtown.”
“In the Palm Beach region, we see an opportunity to create something powerful: A campus that doesn’t just educate but actively fuels the region’s growth by attracting top talent, fostering innovation, and forging with industry leaders,” Diermeirer added.
The chancellor saluted Steven Ross, the South Florida-based billionaire developer and Miami Dolphins owner who was an early supporter of the project, hosting an early fundraiser in 2024 at his Palm Beach home.
“Steve Ross has been absolutely fantastic — a great philanthropic supporter and a partner in thinking this through,” Diermeirer said.
The chancellor also cited Vanderbilt alumnus Cody Crowell, who he said made “phenomenal commitments” to the project and was the person who in 2023 raised the idea of building a business school campus in West Palm Beach.
Crowell, a principal and managing partner with the Frisbie Group investment organization, “contributed $5 million to demonstrate his belief in the project — one for which he has been a vocal supporter since its very early stages,” according to the school website.
Commitment supplants doubts
In a brief interview after the presentation, Ross told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that some in the community had been “kind of questioning if they really were going to come.”
But the Monday announcement appeared to allay any fears.
“They made a major commitment well known today so that it’s a reality,” Ross said of the university.
The doors of a completed campus are expected to open in 2029, or possibly earlier, officials said.
“There is still much to be worked out in the way of timing, and we will provide those updates as soon as details are confirmed,” Diermeier told the audience. “We are moving fast, and we are moving thoughtfully, seizing today’s momentum while ensuring the campus is a singular place we can all be proud of.”
In February of last year, the university released renderings of the proposed campus, which is being designed to accommodate up to 1,000 mostly graduate students.
In post-presentation interviews, Diermeier and Vice Chancellor Nathan Green, who steers the university’s government and community affairs efforts, said Vanderbilt hopes to produce events and programs to benefit the community in advance of construction.
“The next step for us is to finalize the designs and then we basically put shovels in the ground,” Diermeier said. “It will probably be open ‘28 or ‘29.”
The programs of study will focus mostly on business and technology and “engineering programs in the areas where South Florida is particularly strong,” Diermeier said, including space, defense, advanced manufacturing and fintech.