USF, to be sure, is no longer that “commuter school” near Temple Terrace. It’s the ninth largest public university in the country with a regional economic impact in excess of $3 billion annually. Its cutting-edge research reputation ranges from Alzheimer’s to oil-spills. Recession notwithstanding, its Tampa campus alone is in the midst of a $300-million construction boom.
But it just upped the ante again.
USF will now be a major player in the next chapter of downtown Tampa’s development. That’s the upshot of its latest envelope-pushing foray: a 90,000-square-foot, high-tech medical training facility, the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, which will break ground within weeks on South Franklin Street near the Tampa Convention Center. USF paid the city $3.5 million for underutilized, strategically-located land.
It will put USF on the global map when it comes to robotic surgical training. And it will give a synergistic jolt to the area.
CAMLS will attract physicians from around the world. It will also bring in several medical equipment manufacturers that will set up training and R&D offices. It will be a leg up in attracting more prestigious medical conferences to the convention center. And visitors will need a place to stay.
There are a lot of reasons to be bullish on USF these days. Even better is that USF is bullish on downtown.