Jorge Camejo, director of the Hollywood Community Redevelopment Agency, can already see the impact the city's new neighbors are having on its downtown.
"We're beginning to see today, students and faculty members beginning to meander through the downtown," Camejo said. "You see students walking up and down 21st Avenue having lunch, or eating dinner."
Camejo and the Hollywood CRA helped bring Barry University's College of Health Sciences to an old firehouse on North 21st Avenue and Fillmore Street.
The fully-remodeled facility opened in January. At capacity, it will be used by about 130 students and staff studying anesthesiology and biomedical science. The building and location are getting rave reviews, said Health Sciences Dean Pegge Bell.
"We have a lease for 10 years, that gives us an opportunity to grow, and we may very soon outgrow this building," Dean Bell said.
Rising enrollment -- particularly in science and health -- has sparked a boom among South Florida colleges and universities from Broward to Miami-Dade County.
"Universities generally bring new ideas. New ideas are the basis of new business," said Dr. Jack Lord, chief innovation officer for the University of Miami's new Life Sciences and Technology campus.
Located in Miami's Health District, phase one was completed last year. It's now home to the university's new tissue bank, where medicine's best and brightest researchers are using locally-collected tissue and bone samples to better understand the workings of the human body.
The multi-million dollar new campus has already created more than a thousand jobs, said Dr. Lord, and he expects more to come as the campus grows.
