Miami-Dade has agreed to a $6.2 million sale of county land to the University of Miami, which plans to build a multi-million-dollar medical education center on the site. The university confirmed the planned purchase Friday.

The university wants to launch “Project Ignite” on the site, creating “a nucleus for the core of the Miami Health District,” a report states, “creating a true campus downtown by bridging education, research, and innovation.”

In the report to Carlos Migoya, CEO of the Public Health Trust, the university’s Robert Warren, interim vice president of UHealth facilities, operations and planning, said Project Ignite would “enable the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to consolidate its teaching locations from 17 facilities into one facility and promote development of a first class medical care training site for the doctors of the future.”

Three resolutions involving the university were submitted by Keon Hardemon and approved last week by the county commission, but Project Ignite was the frosting on the cake.

“The addition of a state-of-the-art Project Ignite facility to support its contemporary NextGenMD curriculum will allow the [medical school] to continue to attract and retain world class students and faculty,” the report from Mr. Warren said.

The proposal to the county noted that “Miami-Dade County has the largest concentration of medical facilities in Florida.

“The largest institution is Jackson Memorial Medical Center, the second largest public hospital in the nation, which shares many teaching, treatment and research capacities with the University of Miami,” and private hospitals including Mount Sinai, the Baptist Health System and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, the report said.

The new medical campus would be along Northwest 14th Street, bounded by university-owned land on the east, Northwest 14th Street on the south, Miami-Dade County owned-land on the west (which the university wants to buy), and university-owned property on the north.

The estimated cost of the project “has not been finalized,” the report states, “but is anticipated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The project is anticipated to be funded through philanthropy and debt financing.”

Construction is expected to begin “mid to late-2024,” the report says, “and be completed late-2027.” Sale of the county-owned land, which was subsequently approved by the commission, is “critical to the success of the project,” the report said.

Project Ignite, the report said, is projected to have a “transformational impact for the university and the surrounding community.

“It will enhance the provision of preeminent health education services and the longstanding academic medical center partnership between the university and Jackson Health System, which in tum will benefit Miami-Dade County and the community at large,” the report said.

Project Ignite’s location would consist of 36,410 square feet of property (.836 acres).

The two other resolutions having to do with the university that the commission passed last week would terminate a lease of property at 1800 NW 10th Ave. and 1121 NW 14th St. (which includes the Project Ignite site the university wants to purchase); and demolish two outdated buildings on the Jackson Memorial Medical Center campus, where the county’s Public Health Trust intends to construct a new emergency department.

The structures to be demolished are the Highland Park Pavilion, 1660 NW Seventh Court, and the Ambulatory Care Center East at 1611 NW 12th Ave.
The Public Health Trust, an agency of the county, operates the Jackson Health System, including the Jackson Memorial Medical Center campus and facilities that provide health care services.

Source:  Miami Today