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The University of Florida could be coming to Palm Beach County.
County Mayor Dave Kerner and West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James are teaming up to push for a campus to open in the city, offering advanced degrees in science, engineering and business.
"There's been a frustration within this county, perhaps this state, about our children becoming very educated, going to higher level graduate schools and leaving our state for larger urban centers within the United States...like New York City, Boston and out west in California."
Kerner says a UF presence locally would attract the best and brightest students to our community and keep many of them here to work for companies that have and continue to relocate to the county.
James says don't call it a "satellite campus."
"This is not another undergraduate campus. They're looking to put together some very tailored, targeted programs for graduates. Graduate programs for professionals and executives."
Kerner said it would "compliment" the six other colleges in the county, including Florida Atlantic, the one public university.
The county mayor called it a "rare opportunity for Palm Beach County to benefit from a second public university."
Land has already been located near the downtown West Palm Beach area.
It's early in the process. University of Florida President Kent Fuchs will be in town for meetings with the West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County commissions Monday and Tuesday.
Both men say that no taxpayer funding is going to the project, but the county and city own the land, and will have to vote on donating the 12 to 14 acres to UF.
The plan still needs approval from the county and city, as well as support from the state university system board of trustees and UF's board of governors.