Vanderbilt University is moving ahead with plans to build a $520 million graduate campus in West Palm Beach. The Nashville-based institution aims to offer graduate programs in business and technology at the new site, following initial project approvals received more than a year ago.
The effort is supported by several real estate figures in the area. Steve Ross, chairman of Related Companies, has pledged $50 million toward the campus. Ross has also hosted fundraising events for Vanderbilt and spoken publicly in favor of the initiative. At a county meeting in 2024, he said, “To pass up this opportunity would be a crime. There’s no place that’s ever grown that doesn’t have great universities, great schools.”
Ross has multiple office and residential developments planned for West Palm Beach. He has worked to attract institutions and companies to occupy these properties. Among his other projects, Cleveland Clinic will serve as the anchor tenant at his proposed 15 CityPlace development with a 120,000-square-foot outpatient center. Ross also donated $50 million for an additional 150-bed hospital Cleveland Clinic is planning nearby.
Other notable donors include billionaire Jeff Greene and Cody Crowell of Frisbie Group, who is a Vanderbilt alumnus and committed $5 million to the campus project.
Vanderbilt began its fundraising campaign for the West Palm Beach campus last year with a target of $300 million. While the university did not disclose how much it has raised so far, it announced plans to start a second phase aimed at raising another $250 million.
In 2024, officials from Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach approved gifting seven acres of public land for the campus. They also entered into an agreement requiring Vanderbilt to invest $300 million in capital expenditures and create 4,500 construction jobs through the project. Within five years of opening, Vanderbilt must employ 200 full-time staff members, enroll 1,000 students on site, and operate with an annual budget of $70 million.
This will not be Vanderbilt’s first satellite graduate campus; it opened another location last year in New York City at a former Episcopal seminary on West 21st Street.
