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St. Pete continues to grow as a destination for young professionals and college students. USF St. Petersburg has played a pivotal role in expanding job and education opportunities for millenials in the Burg and has helped put the city on the map as a research destination.
The USF Foundation has officially closed on 3.6 acres of land at 801 3rd Street South, just west of the Poynter Building. The property runs adjacent to the current USF St. Pete campus boundary and includes a 13,000 square foot structure formally used as the Greyhound bus line maintenance building. The building comes with employee locker rooms, restrooms, office space and spacious rooms for labs.
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The University plans on using this space for portable academic and research labs to continue the fantastic growth of their revered Biology program. USF St. Pete plans to have the labs and property finished and ready for the Fall 2015 semester. The facilities will also act as research centers for faculty members.
"I see this development divided into three parts," said Joe Trubacz, Reigonal Vice President of Finance and Administration of USF St. Pete. Those three parts include parking for the soon-to-be complete Kate Tiedemann College of Business (the area will also serve as a staging area for the buildout), the academic/lab center which will take over the former Greyhound maintenance building and finally expanded green space for university students.
"The number of students enrolled and majoring in USF St. Pete's Biology program grew from 0-600 students in just 3 years" said Trubacz. As academic interest increases the university could see an increase in faculty posistions. USF St. Pete will become a more attractive prospect to highly regarded professors due to their renewed emphasis on the independent research of their professors outside of the classroom.
This expansion continues the University's forward academic momentum. On the heels of the Blue Ocean Film Festival, along with the USF School Of Architecture's recent expansion to the Cue House at St. Pete Shuffle, our downtown academic haven is carving out a space in St. Pete for innovative minds around the world.
Major companies have already taken notice of the potential the city provides. Most recently Genius Central and iQor have brought their HQs here in a move that even caught the attention of our Florida governor.
Just because it's cliche doesn't make it any less true, an investment in education is an investment in the future. A higher educated local workforce and room for more teaching positions downtown will soon turn the Sunshine City into an incubator for science, technology, environmental studies, community development and the arts.
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