June 2025 | Mike Brassfield
Vanderbilt University isn’t an Ivy League school, but it’s awfully close. Located in Nashville, it’s known as a “Southern Ivy” because of its stellar academic reputation and because of how difficult it is to get in. It’s currently ranked 18th in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of all public and private universities in the country.
And now it’s coming to West Palm Beach — maybe. Vanderbilt plans to build its first satellite campus in Florida, provided it can raise enough money. Local city and county governments handed over seven acres of land in downtown West Palm to Vanderbilt last October, with the caveat that the university start construction within five years. To make that happen, Vanderbilt has set itself an ambitious fundraising goal.
“For us to be able to operate and finance the campus, we need to raise $300 million,” says Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier. “We’re about $77 million in at this point. I think things are going well. We have lots of great conversations ... but we also still have a way to go.”
Vanderbilt’s campus in West Palm would feature a business school as large as its Nashville one. As envisioned, it would serve nearly 1,000 students in graduate-level business and finance programs as well as engineering fields like artificial intelligence, data science and computer science. It would also include what Vanderbilt calls a “state-of-the-art innovation center that fosters collaboration among startups, investors, established businesses and academia.”
The stakes are high. Vanderbilt’s presence would be a huge feather in West Palm Beach’s cap and would further burnish its “Wall Street South” image.
“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James calls it.
“Transformational,” Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss calls it.
Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier says the university has raised about $77 million of its $300-million goal to operate and finance a campus in West Palm Beach that would feature a business school as large as its one in Nashville.
VISION AND IMPACT
Billionaire West Palm real estate developer Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins, predicted in remarks to the Palm Beach County Commission last year that Vanderbilt’s business school would trigger a “Silicon Valley”-like impact, bringing innovative new companies to the region.
Vanderbilt’s contract with Palm Beach County requires it to build a $300-million campus that creates at least 4,500 construction jobs, has an annual enrollment of at least 900 students, and employs at least 200 faculty and staff. In exchange for the donated property, the contract calls for Vanderbilt to spend at least $2.4 billion on the school in the first 25 years and $5.3 billion in the first 50 years.
In February, Vanderbilt released a series of artist’s renderings of what its West Palm Beach campus would look like. They show modern-looking buildings, sunlit lecture halls, a 300,000-sq.-ft. business school, a rooftop terrace, a network of outdoor spaces and an arboretum — a botanical garden stocked with tropical plants and trees that would function as a “living laboratory of South Florida landscape,” according to the university. It’s a link to Vanderbilt’s main campus in Nashville, which is known for its arboretum.
“When you engage in a fundraising campaign, it’s important that people can visualize and have a sense of what this thing would really look like,” says Diermeier, Vanderbilt’s chancellor. “That’s what the renderings are about. The purpose is to make it real for people.”
Elkus Manfredi Architects was chosen to spearhead the campus’ design. Its CEO and founding principal, David P. Manfredi, is a longtime architect for Stephen Ross, whom the Palm Beach Post has described as “a driving force behind the Vanderbilt campus plan.”
Ross, who had no affiliation with Vanderbilt before now, has emerged as a champion of its West Palm campus, committing $50 million to the project. Vanderbilt alumnus Cody Crowell, a principal and managing partner with West Palm-based real estate investment firm Frisbie Group, is contributing $5 million.
In an economic impact statement that was presented to Palm Beach County, Vanderbilt says its West Palm campus would generate more than $7.1 billion in local economic activity over the next 25 years, doubling to more than $14.2 billion over 50 years. Vanderbilt anticipates it’ll spend $268 million for academic buildings, $217 million for student housing and $35 million for a parking garage.
THE CHANCELLOR’S GOAL
While Vanderbilt’s contract with the county requires it to begin construction on the campus within five years, the university’s chancellor predicts it won’t take that long.
“Our goal is to be ready within a year and a half or so,” Diermeier says. “We’re co-investing in this. That means we want to have support from public officials, and that has been fantastic. Couldn’t be better. And then we want to make sure that there’s support from the business community and from the philanthropic community.”
It remains to be seen how fundraising will go, but Vanderbilt appears to have a certain amount of support in the private sector as well as in local government.
“As a nationally recognized institution, Vanderbilt brings not only academic excellence but also a reputation that will elevate our talent pipeline and drive our innovation economy,” says Michael Zeff, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches. “This investment will attract top-tier students, faculty and employers while expanding access to high-quality education and opening new pathways for workforce development. It’s a win for business and a win for our residents.”
ON THE MAP
The campus is to be located downtown along South Tamarind Avenue. Palm Beach County donated five acres of land appraised at $46 million, and the city of West Palm Beach contributed two acres appraised at nearly $14 million. At public meetings, local officials overwhelmingly said they thought the investment was worth it.