UCF will take over
Lake Nona facility will be the university’s officially Dec. 1
the Sanford Burnham building in Lake Nona on Dec. 1.
It’s official: the University of Central Florida will take over the Sanford Burnham building in Lake Nona Medical City on Dec. 1, bringing to end the California-based research institute’s decade-long stint in Orlando.
On Monday and Tuesday, Orlando, Orange County and UCF voted to approve a series of documents that unwound Sanford Burnham’s original agreements and put in place new ones so that UCF can begin establishing a cancer research and treatment center at the 175,000square-foot facility.
“This is the beginning of a deep focus on research at our medical school,” said Dr. Deborah German, dean of the UCF College of Medicine. “We now have a cancer center where state-of-the-art cancer research can be done. In the future, it would be great to have a Neurosciences Institute or an Infectious Disease Institute or a Cardiac Institute and have buildings like the Sanford Burnham building that we have for cancer for all of those things. Now I don’t know if all of that will happen in my lifetime — but a girl can dream.”
UCF, which is building a teaching hospital adjacent to its medical school in Medical City, could begin research at the facility as early as March.
“What’s really exciting is the fact that we’ll have the hospital and cancer research center unit within walking distance,” said Dr. Annette Khaled, professor of medicine and head of the cancer research division at UCF’s medical college. “Right now my collaborations are miles and miles away.”
Here’s a brief summary of the new agreements:
Orange County has owned the land and Sanford Burnham has owned the building. The institute will now give the county the building for free. In turn, the county will sell the land and the building for $50 million to UCF. (UCF trustees estimated Tuesday that the value of the building and the 12 acres of the land is at least $90 million.) The university is responsible for all the closing costs.
UCF, through one of its Direct Support Organizations, will pay the mortgage, without interest, to the county quarterly,
once it starts receiving rent from the building’s tenants, for 30 years. Two of those potential tenants are Provision Healthcare, which specializes in proton therapy, and Sarah Cannon, which is the cancer institute of HCA Healthcare.
Orange County will then distribute the $50 million, which will be paid quarterly for 30 years, among the funding parties: 43 percent will go to the county, 35 percent to the City of Orlando and the rest to Tavistock.
The deal closes Aug. 27. UCF doesn’t plan to move into the building before Dec. 1. Until then, it will lease parts of the building back to Sanford Burnham so that the few remaining scientists can continue their research. UCF officials said they’re still working on plans in case some scientists can’t leave by Dec. 1.
It took nearly three years for Sanford Burnham and the three local parties to find a viable solution for the sophisticated building that was built for $77 million to house the research institute.
The plans have morphed over time from a transition in leadership when most of the faculty was still here to the transfer of the building now that most of the research institute’s high-caliber faculty have departed for jobs elsewhere.
But during their public comments this week, local officials said it’s time to move on and celebrate the dawn of a new day.
“I’m really proud of where we are today,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs during Tuesday’s commission meeting. “Nobody had a crystal ball when we entered into this agreement with Sanford Burnham many years ago. … but I think the key in life is to be agile and to look for opportunities where it appears there may be none.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said during the City Council meeting Monday, “I think when you have an issue that looks a little difficult, sometimes you’re able to make something even better out of that, and I think that’s what we’re able to do today.”
They also said that the sale of the building and land provides a financial return on investments to the taxpayers.
Sanford Burnham, which is headquartered in La Jolla, Calif., came to Florida a decade ago with more than $150 million in state incentive funds and matching funds from Orlando, Orange County and Tavistock, agreeing to create more than 300 jobs over a decade.
But in May 2016, Sanford Burnham’s plans to cease its operations in Florida were revealed. The institute said it decided to leave Orlando because it found its operations here to be financially unsustainable.
At the time, the research institute was planning to hand off its operations to the University of Florida. But that deal fell through.
The institute tried to strike a deal with Florida Hospital, but that also fell through earlier this year, leaving UCF as one of the main contenders for the site.
Meanwhile, the institute had reached about 87 percent of jobs promised. So earlier this year, it returned $12.3 million to the state for failing to meet the requirements that were spelled out in its original incentive agreement.
The county also has $814,000 remaining in an escrow account that was earmarked for Sanford Burnham. The money will be distributed among the city, the county and Tavistock.
Any equipment purchased with local funds also will remain in the facility, including furniture and some lab equipment.
German said UCF will be working with Sanford Burnham on the transition and will develop plans to build the cancer center and eventually fill up the building.
“I can’t even imagine the impact that this moment in time is going to have in the future,” said Jacobs before the motion to approve the agreements was carried unanimously by the commissioners Tuesday. “And I can’t wait to look back 10 years from now and see what you’ve done with this opportunity.”