Big Hitch For FIU's New Engineering School Plans

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Florida International University has unveiled plans for a new state of the art engineering school to be built just south of their Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

There's just one hitch - the land they want to build it on at Tamiami Park is currently occupied by the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition.

During a presentation Tuesday morning, FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg said their new $150 million, 225,000-square-foot, College of Engineering and Computing building would help them meet their goal of increasing the number of engineering graduates by 20 percent by the year 2020.

President Obama's Council on Jobs has called for an increase of 10,000 engineering graduates per year. The engineering expansion would position FIU to graduate an additional 350 engineers each year.

"This engineering expansion will propel South Florida forward by expanding the quantity and quality of jobs, nurturing start-up companies and acting as a collaborative research center," Rosenberg said in a statement. "We get it! FIU is a solutions center and we're determined to do our part to create a tech hub in Miami that will contribute to the prosperity of our region and our state."

FIU projects that the expansion of their engineering department would create 550 jobs and increase research spending by $30 million a year.

One obstacle which stands in the university's way is the Fair.

"How could a three week fair impede the future of our community and our public university," said Rosenberg.

In 2014, voters approved a referendum that would allow FIU to expand its campus on to the fairgrounds, providing it could find a suitable place to relocate the Fair.

So far, according to Fair officials, they haven't found a parcel of county land that would be suitable. The last site looked at was in Homestead. After three site studies, the Fair determined it wouldn't work. Not only would it reduce their annual attendance by more than half, according to the Fair, it would also cut their revenue by more than $3.2 million which result in an annual loss.

"We would be in financial distress and eventually into bankruptcy," said Youth Fair President and CEO Robert Hohenstein.

Also in question is the amount it would cost them to move. The Fair says FIU has offered it the equivalent of midway peanuts to relocate.

"They will spend $50 million. That doesn't even come close to the cost of the relocation of the fair," said Hohenstein.

The Fair says there is room on the property for the carnival and the college. FIU does not agree.

"We plan every year to add 2,000 students. You will not find that at any other university in this United States," said Rosenberg.

Hohenstein issued the following statement on the matter earlier on Tuesday, "Even if a suitable piece of land is found, the Fair's lease with the county stipulates that the Fair would have to be given a three-year notice to move. This puts into question how the school under this plan can graduate more engineering students by 2020 if they couldn't even at the very earliest break ground until 2019. Frankly, none of the numbers coming out of FIU come close to adding up. Several studies and appraisals, two of which FIU co-paid for, show it will take hundreds of millions of dollars to relocate The Youth Fair, and FIU simply doesn't have the money to do it."   

Meantime, every town in the county has sided with FIU.

"It's essential. These are the jobs of the future. These are what are going to make our cities and inner cities vibrant," said Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez.

The Miami-Dade Fair and Exposition has an ironclad lease with the county to stay in its current location through 2085.

"We will find a solution but we will do it, as I said, per the terms and conditions of the lease. They are very, very clear," said Hohenstein.