Palm Beach County Officials Designate Jupiter As Destination For Scripps Florida Campus
In somewhat of a suprising move, officials voted Tuesday to move the planned Scripps Research Institute to northern Palm Beach County.
Construction on a proposed 2,000-acre biotechnology park at the original Mecca Farms site - where the county has spent more than $116 million - was halted last year after a lawsuit was filed the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club contending that engineers failed to do a comprehensive environmental study before granting the building permits to Scripps.
A federal judge agreed, ruling that key roads and infrastructure couldn’t be built until a broad environmental impact analysis was completed. So Scripps is on its way to Jupiter, Fla. The biomedical research heavyweight and Palm Beach County will now negotiate a contract for the new site on John D. MacArthur campus of Florida Atlantic University, in Jupiter’s Abacoa community.
Boca Raton was also a leading candidate to land Scripps, which is expected to provide an economic boon to the vicinity.
“It doesn’t have to go under any municipal scrutiny. It’s ready to go,” Jupiter Vice Mayor Todd Wodraska told commissioners.
Commissioners heard proposals from the cities of Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton. As part of the plan, Gov. Jeb Bush wants 8 million square feet of industrial space at the site to allow for an influx of related development, emulating the region around Scripps’ La Jolla (Calif.) headquarters — where nearly 500 biotech and research companies are situated within three miles of the facility.
Bush has promised millions of dollars to lure the biotech giant to the Sunshine State, known more for its tourism, agriculture and hurricanes than medical research. The state believes that the arrival of Scripps could help diversify South Florida’s economy with high-paying jobs and cutting-edge research aimed at curing cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s and more.
Bush has expressed concerns about the Jupiter site, however, noting that contiguous acreage is not available to lure and support the cluster of additional research companies he envisions.
“It clearly presents a departure from the original vision,” Bush said in a statement. “There are still issues that need to be answered … about the creation of the cluster.”
Commissioner Mary McCarty expressed similar concerns with the feasibility of building a community of research development in the FAU campus area, calling it a “big risk.” But the board voted 4-3 to approve the site, swayed by the area’s booming economy and its potential to enhance minority training in the technology industry.
Florida and Palm Beach County have already committed nearly $600 million to the project. Meanwhile, IBM said it will announce a collaboration with Scripps Florida that will combine the talent and technology from both institutions and focus on “an initial project of social impact with high scientific merit.”
A by-product of Scripps settling in the area will be yet another boost in Palm Beach real estate prices, which have been some of the nation’s fastest-growing in recent years. While many of South Florida’s overvalued markets are in decline or at least cooling off, a boost to the local economy will likely counter that trend to some degree.
With Florida home loans still relatively low, Jupiter may become an even bigger hot spot — for real estate as well as the biotech sector.
