USF med school move downtown ‘bigger than baseball'
By Jerome R. Stockfisch | Tribune Staff
Tampa Tribune
Published: Oct 30, 2014

TAMPA - The University of South Florida took the first formal step to build its new medical school downtown, with a trustees' work group voting unanimously Thursday morning for a project Mayor Bob Buckhorn called "bigger than baseball.”

Charles Lockwood, dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, unveiled renderings of a 12-story, $157 million structure at Meridian Avenue and Channelside Drive on land donated by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.

A 10-story medical building and a parking garage for 1,800 vehicles that will be built by Vinik's development company round out the project.

The move to downtown of the medical school, the USF Health Heart Institute, the college of pharmacy and potentially other components of USF Health would create a "university district,” Lockwood said.

The district would include USF teaching hospital Tampa General, USF operations adjacent to Tampa General, and the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, Lockwood said.

"The idea of creating a vibrant university presence to act as a magnet to draw corporate headquarters, to draw additional residential areas, to draw hospitality services and restaurants, and so forth, coupled with all the other components of this development project, I think will have a substantial long-term impact on the city,” Lockwood said. "More importantly from my perspective, it would be transformative for our college of medicine, our college of pharmacy, and our research opportunities at this university because it would be an extraordinarily attractive location for students, for faculty and for researchers.”

Mayor Bob Buckhorn was equally effusive, calling the move "the most significant redevelopment opportunity that this state has ever had.”

"This is bigger than baseball,” he said, alluding to the Tampa Bay Rays' interest in looking at potential stadium sites in Tampa. "This is an entire economic engine that will drive the development of downtown for a long period of time.”

USF will ask for $62 million from the state, the amount it would have requested had a new medical school been constructed on the main USF campus in north Tampa. It has $50 million in the pipeline for the Heart Institute and has received $18 million from philanthropists Frank and Carol Morsani.

That leaves the school about $27 million short of the ultimate price tag for the new medical school, targeted at $157 million. The school will raise that money privately and may seek additional funding from the state.

The health work group of USF's board of trustees voted to recommend the project favorably to the full board. Trustees will meet in December, and the full board will decide whether to proceed.

From there, the issue goes to the state university system Board of Governors, which would give final approval and ask the state Legislature for funding.