{"id":42950,"date":"2025-07-29T13:46:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42950"},"modified":"2025-07-29T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:46:04","slug":"exclusive-s-f-in-talks-with-prestigious-university-about-a-downtown-campus-heres-what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/29\/exclusive-s-f-in-talks-with-prestigious-university-about-a-downtown-campus-heres-what-we-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: S.F. in talks with prestigious university about a downtown campus. Here\u2019s what we know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BAY AREA<\/a>\/\/SAN FRANCISCO<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Laura Waxmann<\/a>, Staff WriterJuly 28, 2025 (SFChroncile.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco mayors have, for years, wanted to entice a prestigious university to build a downtown campus. Now, the city is in discussions with a private research school to make that dream real.Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco\u2019s bid to attract a major university to its downtown core<\/a> could be fulfilled as a prestigious private research school is in talks with the mayor\u2019s office about expanding its presence into the heart of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Vanderbilt University confirmed to the Chronicle that it is considering broadening its school in Nashville, Tenn., to San Francisco and has been working with Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s office on the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVanderbilt is always exploring new opportunities to expand our impact and further our mission. We recognize the long-term global leadership of San Francisco and its ever-growing potential, defined by a vibrant culture, dynamic innovation ecosystem and the talent drawn to its leading technology companies and top-caliber arts and cultural institutions,\u201d the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis powerful combination is why we are optimistically exploring the possibility of establishing a presence downtown, working closely with Mayor Daniel Lurie and his team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanderbilt, which is renowned for its engineering and medical programs, has a record of expansion, with hubs in New York City and West Palm Beach. The school of 13,000 students is also growing its main campus, the spokesperson said, adding that the effort in San Francisco would be \u201ccomplementing\u201d those growth initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe aim to create unique student experiences, fuel pathbreaking research and foster close connections to the ideas and companies that will lead the next generation of the nation\u2019s economy,\u201d the spokesperson said, but declined to provide details, including whether new student housing could be involved in the deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lurie\u2019s office confirmed the talks with Vanderbilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur administration is working every day to create a clean, safe and thriving downtown \u2014 one that draws people, businesses and investments back to our city,\u201d Lurie told the Chronicle. \u201cAs I said during my campaign, welcoming a world-class university like Vanderbilt to our city would bring new energy and foot traffic downtown, and we will continue working to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lurie\u2019s office declined to provide details, such as the type of the programming that a potential San Francisco campus would offer or which sites are in play. However, a source with insight into the discussions confirmed that Lurie has met twice with Vanderbilt\u2019s leadership, and that Ned Segal, a former local business leader who is now the city\u2019s chief of housing and economic development, has also met with them \u201cseveral times.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The insider also said that Lurie\u2019s office has reached out to about half a dozen other universities, but that talks with Vanderbilt seem to be the \u201cmost promising.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a panel discussion with business leaders in April, Segal spoke about efforts to attract new investment to downtown \u2014 and teased the downtown university<\/a> when asked about how he envisioned the area\u2019s recovery to look like four years from now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you come downtown, there will be people walking along the street at 9 p.m. They\u2019ll be sitting outside in cafes \u2026 they\u2019ll be of all ages, because some of them will be students with a university name across their shirts,\u201d Segal said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor\u2019s vision to infuse downtown with students from other parts of the country is not a novel idea. Lurie\u2019s predecessor, London Breed, last May announced a call for proposals to bring a historically Black college and university (HBCU) satellite campus<\/a> to the city\u2019s core. The effort was part of Breed\u2019s 30 by 30 initiative, which sought to bring 30,000 students and residents downtown by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of California also at one point considered expanding<\/a> its presence into downtown San Francisco, in response to a plea Breed made to the UC Board of Regents <\/a>in 2023 requesting that it consider opening a new campus. It is unclear whether that consideration is still active. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrival of a university<\/a>, like Vanderbilt, could help San Francisco\u2019s downtown, which is still recovering from pandemic effects that emptied offices and saw the closures of several major retailers and restaurants and a reduction in conferences that combined to reduce foot traffic and spending in the city\u2019s economic core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Commercial vacancy in San Francisco continues to hover at around 35%, leaving Vanderbilt with a buffet of real estate options. The city\u2019s core has been much slower to recover than other markets, though rapid growth from nascent artificial intelligence startups \u2014 with ChatGPT maker OpenAI being the most prominent example \u2014 has begun to translate into new leases across the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month Vanderbilt announced plans for a new \u201cinnovation district\u201d in Nashville complete with research space and offices for university-affiliates and nearby startups, parks, retail and housing, spanning several blocks on land it owns near its main campus. The district\u2019s buildout is expected to take more than a decade to complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much an innovation center \u2014 where you drive to it and drive back home \u2014 but it is part of the fabric,\u201d Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier told the Nashville Business Journal<\/a> about the project last month. \u201cSome of the more successful versions of this, it\u2019s really where people want to live. \u2026 We want to make sure that we materially add to the housing stock in Nashville.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco officials have considered the value of placing an AI-related research center downtown, where a growing number of startups are beginning to slowly chip away<\/a> at the city\u2019s vast inventory of unused offices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with the Chronicle in April, San Francisco Chief Economist Ted Egan said such an effort could have a similar effect on downtown as the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., the nation\u2019s first for-profit computer industry research and development consortium, known as MCC, had on the city of Austin, Texas, in the 1980s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MCC\u2019s arrival gave what was then a sleepy college town new significance in the nation\u2019s tech community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was as a semiconductor industry research association that a lot of people credit with putting Austin on the map for semiconductor manufacturing and innovation. And it really balanced out the (tech) cluster in Austin, which had just been a bunch of isolated branch plants and big electronics companies, and got the university involved,\u201d Egan said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a question: What can we really do between UC Berkeley, Stanford and UCSF to do research that follows a similar model and connects to the city\u2019s and the region\u2019s natural economic strengths?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 28, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Laura Waxmann<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura Waxmann covers the business community with a focus on commercial real estate, development, retail and the future of San Francisco’s downtown. Prior to joining The Chronicle in 2023, she reported on San Francisco’s changing real estate and economic landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic for the San Francisco Business Times.Waxmann was born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany, but has called San Francisco home since 2007. She’s reported on a variety of topics including housing, homelessness, education and local politics for the San Francisco Examiner, Mission Local and El Tecolote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAY AREA\/\/SAN FRANCISCO By\u00a0Laura Waxmann, Staff WriterJuly 28, 2025 (SFChroncile.com) San Francisco mayors have, for years, wanted to entice a prestigious university to build a downtown campus. Now, the city is in discussions with a private research school to make that dream real.Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle San Francisco\u2019s bid to attract… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42952,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42950\/revisions\/42952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}