TAMPA The University of South Florida is set to make a big decision Thursday.

The board of trustees is scheduled to vote at a 9 a.m. meeting on whether the university should build its new medical school in downtown, a move that would mean big changes for both USF and Tampa.

The university has two new developments in mind: replacing the Morsani College of Medicine and building a new venture called the USF Heart Health Institute. But plans to build both on the main campus were put on hold weeks ago after Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik offered to donate some of his property around the Amalie Arena so that USF could build an urban medical campus in downtown.

Vinik hopes to incorporate the medical school into his plans to redevelop the 24 barren acres he owns around the home arena of his hockey team and his latest acquisition, the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina.

A downtown medical campus would be the kind of high-end and high-paying development that Vinik wants to add his plans to revive the southern end of downtown Tampa with new apartments, condos, hotels, restaurants and shops.

The move could also raise the profile of USF's medical school, making it more attractive to students and faculty who want to live in an urban area. It would also move the school closer to its teaching hospital, Tampa General Hospital.

USF President Judy Genshaft has said that Vinik's donation is crucial to the project. That's because while Genshaft supports the downtown medical school option, she said the university would not pay for downtown land to make it happen.

The downtown medical school proposal also has the support of major university donors, Mayor Bob Buckhorn and, since October, a key group of trustees.

That's when the eight trustees who oversee USF Health's medical and educational programs voted to endorse the urban medical school option. But during Thursday's meeting of the board of trustees, all 13 of them must approve the proposal.

The project calls for the university to build a 12-story building at the corner of Channelside Drive and S Meridian Avenue that would house the new Morsani College of Medicine and the USF Heart Health Institute.

Read the original here:

USF trustees set to vote on downtown medical school option