Phil Ammann
While the new University of Central Florida downtown Orlando campus has yet to open, school leaders are already making plans for expansion.
Rachel Williams of the Orlando Business Journal reports the UCF board of trustees voted July 28 to approve a new five-year capital improvement plan — including a project called “UCF Downtown campus building II” — for fiscal 2020-21. The plan comes with a $77.7 million price tag.
Capital improvement plans are submitted for annual review, then forwarded to the State University System of Florida Board of Governors, which votes which public university projects will receive state education funds.
Gov. Rick Scott approved $20 million in state funds for UCF Downtown’s first academic building, a 165,000-square-foot, $60 million facility approved by the board March 2.
Although inclusion in a capital improvement plan does not guarantee funds or future development, Williams notes that it does show UCF is looking forward. The first phase is estimated to have a $205 million annual economic impact, with 2,000 new direct and indirect jobs.
If the second building is approved, it will bring additional full-time jobs and construction opportunities, while boosting UCF capacity.
Phase 1 of the downtown Orlando campus is scheduled to begin in mid-2017, with a planned August 2018 opening.
Williams writes that SchenkelShultz Architecture, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, and Skanska USA Building Inc. — known collectively as SSA/RAMSA/Skanska — will design and build the campus, which could hold as many as 7,700 students. The campus will be located on about 15 acres of land at the intersection of Parramore Avenue and Livingston Street.
