SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It’s known as “Harvard of the South,” and very soon Vanderbilt University could be expanding to downtown San Francisco.
“I’m so excited that I actually went and bought a Vanderbilt hat, and I can’t wait to welcome them into my district,” said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey.
The university is reportedly considering the San Francisco Chronicle building as the site of a satellite campus. Supervisor Matt Dorsey represents that area.
“I know that Vanderbilt is looking at taking a look at the housing opportunities for their own students so this is going to be a great thing for the neighborhood,” said Supervisor Dorsey.
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In a statement, Vanderbilt University said, “We are excited about exploring a possible presence in San Francisco and deeply value our partnership with Mayor Lurie and his team. No decisions on location or real estate have been made.”
The city said the signs are strong.
“This is a big deal. This is nice thing for the neighborhood,” said Supervisor Dorsey.
Downtown San Francisco has struggled to recover from the pandemic and the switch to remote work.
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In 2024, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce released a study that reimagined downtown as a perfect hub for academia.
“Having potentially multiple universities centering their efforts, centering some of the amenities, some of their classrooms, gymnasium in this area might be a benefit,” said Rodney Fong, President of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Fong pointed to the AI boom as the main attraction for universities to make their mark in downtown San Francisco.
“We have all these headquarter companies in all of these offices within literally three blocks of where we are that is a great opportunity for internships, for exposure to the workforce while in college and after college,” said Fong.
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The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development said they have been in conversations with Vanderbilt for a number of weeks.
“We have been working with them – I think they are a great institution and they recognize the opportunity to get in at the ground level of what is happening in our tech sector with AI – they are a great research institution and we find them to be really serious and rigorous in their partnership,” said Leigh Lutenski, Head of Development at the Mayor’s Office of Housing and community development.
The city downtown is already set up to welcome research and academia so permitting would be easy.
“Any university would be smart to consider San Francisco especially now as so much is happening in our downtown in our city and with our tech sector,” said Lutenski. “We have actually a lot of allowable usage downtown. That is another reason that this is a great location for university to start up most of those usages are already permitted.”
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