Scripps-Florida- Historical Overview
Over the past few years, the planning effort by the Governor's Office for the State of Florida, Palm Beach County, the City of Palm Beach Gardens and surrounding municipalities and communities created a regional bioscience economic cluster to diversify the economy, bring well-paying jobs to the area in an effort to create a truly unique community environment.
The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is internationally-recognized for its exploration and research into immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neuroscience, autoimmune diseases, cardio vascular diseases, virology and synthetic vaccine development. TSRI is one of the country's largest, private, non-profit research organizations that has an existing biotechnology economic cluster with research and development in La Jolla, California.
In October 2003, Governor Jeb Bush and the State Legislature created the Scripps Funding Corporation to encourage TSRI to come to Florida as part of a $310 million economic stimulus plan. It was thereafter determined by TSRI and State officials that Palm Beach County would be the future location for the expanded campus. The objective of this expanded research campus, to be know as Scripps-Florida, is to focus on biomedical research, technology development and pharmaceutical development.
During 2003 and 2004, the Palm Beach Gardens City Council initiated a City-wide economic development initiative in order to diversify the City's tax base and provide quality local employment. As the result of the initiative, on September 1, 2004, the Council adopted Resolution 191, 2004, which supported the subject site as the location of Scripps Florida campus. In November of that year, the City Council directed staff to prepare a city-initiated Future Land Use Plan (FLUP) amendment to change the site's current Future Land Use Plan designation to Mixed Use.
On May 5, 2005, the City held a Community Planning Session for the subject site (Briger Tract). The planning session culminated in the June 16, 2005, adoption of Ordinance 7, 2005, which amended the FLUP designation for the site to Mixed Use. The following potential uses were allocated on the site: 8 million square feet of Research & Development (including a 300-bed research clinic); 1,000 multi-family work-force units; and 50,000 square feet of commercial space; or its equivalent. This approval established the base intensity for the future development of the site in terms of impacts on infrastructure, such as roadways, parks and recreation, schools and utilities.
On February 14, 2006, the Board of Palm Beach County Commissioners voted to locate the Scripps-Florida campus in northern Palm Beach County, with an initial phase of 365,000 square feet of bioscience space (known as Scripps Phase I) located on 30 acres within the Abacoa Development of Regional Impact in Jupiter, Florida. Simultaneously, the land owner of the adjacent property (Briger Tract) donated 30 acres to Palm Beach County and sold an additional 40 acres to the County on which to establish the second phase (1.6 million square feet of biotech space) of the Scripps-Florida campus (known as Scripps-Florida Phase II). The property owner also recorded a deed restriction of 100 acres of their land adjacent to Scripps-Florida campus which restricts that area to biotechnological research and development and ancillary uses. The City of Palm Beach Gardens and the Town of Jupiter also provided $3 million each to the county to assist in the establishment of the Scripps-Florida campus in north Palm Beach County.
The Scripps- Florida facility held its Grand Opening on February 26, 2009. The economic development and the creation of a bioscience cluster is underway. The renowned German scientific research society, Max Planck Institute, which held its ground breaking ceremony on June 22, 2010, is establishing a 10,000 square foot facility nearby Scripps-Florida at Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. It is estimated that the proposed Scripps-Florida Phase II/Briger Tract DRI will generate 8,652 new jobs for the local economy. Consistent with the City of Palm Beach Gardens's initiative to diversify the economy and provide quality jobs, 67% of these new jobs will have an average salary between $40,000 and $196,000.
To learn more about the Scripps-Florida Phase II application click here. To see the properties designated for bioscience click here.