Church buys Cooley Law School's Riverview real estate
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 4, 2024

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has purchased Thomas M. Cooley Law School's Riverview real estate.

The Utah-based church paid $20.5 million for the law school's real estate in a deal that closed Feb. 29, according to Hillsborough County property records. The church appears to have paid cash, as a mortgage for the transaction has not been filed.

The law school paid $4.9 million for the property in 2011. The one building on the site, built in 2001, is 131,000 square feet. It sits on just over 13 acres just north of the interchange of Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 301.

James McGrath, president and dean of Michigan-based Cooley Law School, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal on Monday that the Tampa Bay campus will be downsized. He said the school is considering multiple prospects near the University of South Florida and hopes to move to one of them by fall.

The Riverview campus was designed for 800 to 1,000 students; typical enrollment is 300 to 400 students, McGrath said.

"We’ve been looking for a smaller campus for almost two years," McGrath said. "Our current campus is just way too big. The previous administration bought it when the demand for legal education was a lot higher."

The law school will lease its Riverview campus from the church until it makes its move, McGrath said. The buildings he's considering are between 45,000 and 50,000 square feet.

McGrath said he plans to sign a long-term lease for the law school's next facility, but it likely won't be its permanent home in the Tampa Bay region. The law school prefers to own its real estate, and he said his team will be looking for properties for sale. The USF area and downtown Tampa are their top choices.

"We will be signing a long-term lease so it’ll be tricky," McGrath said, "but we can always sublet if we find the perfect building."

Representatives from the church did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

In 2022, the church announced plans to build its fourth Florida temple in Valrico, on a 16.2-acre site on Bell Shoals Road. LDS has owned the Bell Shoals site since 1998, according to county property records. LDS also has smaller locations throughout the Tampa Bay region; there are 260 congregations in Florida.