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A University of Florida campus is one step closer to becoming a reality in South Florida.
The Palm Beach County Commission's unanimous vote on Tuesday came after Monday night's unanimous vote by the city of West Palm Beach.
The campus would offer graduate programs in science, engineering and business and could open by the fall of 2026.
It will benefit students, while also bringing more companies to the state, according to Palm Beach County's Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth.
"I think that this is really a fundamental strength that we're going to be able to present to companies that are looking to relocate to the Sunbelt, especially to South Florida."
UF President Kent Fuchs gave a presentation to commissioners before the vote. He spoke about the Palm Beach-Gators connection.
"Right now, as we speak in Gainesville there are 4,000 students from this county studying at the University of Florida. We have over 20,000 graduates that are part of this county that live and work and pay taxes here."
Fuchs also said that two of his predecessors at UF came from Palm Beach. Fuchs is the 12th president of the University of Florida.
Another goal of the campus would be to keep college students in South Florida, by offering them these graduate programs at the sixth-ranked public university in the nation.
He says the advanced degree campus would not step on the toes of schools like Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach Atlantic University, which is only blocks away from the land where the new UF campus would be built.
Votes must still come from the university's board of governors and the state university system's board of trustees.