{"id":89982,"date":"2025-12-20T00:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/89982\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:30:08","slug":"university-of-florida-says-it-closed-on-downtown-land-for-jacksonville-graduate-campus-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/89982\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Florida says it closed on Downtown land for Jacksonville graduate campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The University of Florida\u2019s lead liaison for the university\u2019s planned Downtown Jacksonville graduate campus said Dec. 19 that property transactions for the project have closed, as reported by the Jacksonville Daily Record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The campus site is in and around the historic Jacksonville Terminal rail station in LaVilla.<\/p>\n

Kurt Dudas, vice president of strategic initiatives for UF, confirmed the closings by text message.<\/p>\n

Dudas said it includes all six properties that the city of Jacksonville agreed to provide for the campus<\/p>\n

The closings come about five weeks after Jacksonville City Council voted Nov. 12 to approve the final land transaction for the proposed campus.<\/p>\n

In June, Council voted to convey the other five properties to UF along with $105 million in funding for the project.<\/p>\n

Dudas confirmed Dec. 19 that the closings included the former Interline Brands Inc. building at 801 W. Bay St., which was the subject of a swap between the city and the building\u2019s owner, the Gateway Jax development partnership, for city-owned property in the former Jacksonville Landing on the Downtown Northbank.<\/p>\n

The Florida Semiconductor Institute \u2013 one of seven national research sites \u2013 Will be Part of the new UF campus in Jacksonville. (Copyright 2024 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

As of 6 p.m. Dec. 19, the deeds had not been recorded with the Duval County Clerk of Court.<\/p>\n

UF says it has amassed $245 million in state funding and private donations for the graduate campus.<\/p>\n

The university says its offerings will include a program that merges artificial intelligence with the medical field; science in management; engineering; computer science; and an MBA tailored toward working professionals.<\/p>\n

UF plans to adapt the Jacksonville Terminal train station to modern uses, keeping its exterior as-is while renovating the interior for such potential uses as retail and restaurants.<\/p>\n

The Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center would be demolished to make way for new construction. <\/p>\n

The university\u2019s timeline calls for the developer to be chosen in March 2026 after a series of workshops and interviews.<\/p>\n

UF said in a news release that the developer would build \u201cmore than 200,000 square feet of high-tech, cutting-edge research, academic, event, retail and administrative office spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campus will launch with professional master\u2019s programs in business, engineering, law, medicine and architecture,\u201d Dudas said in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will also expand UF\u2019s research enterprise, beginning with the Florida Semiconductor Institute\u2019s Advanced Technology Center and potential future clusters in artificial intelligence, health sciences and robotics.\u201d <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The University of Florida\u2019s lead liaison for the university\u2019s planned Downtown Jacksonville graduate campus said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1039,28,30,29,116,48625,48626,2512],"class_list":["post-89982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-duval-county","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-daily-record","tag-uf-grad-campus","tag-university-of-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}