UCF agrees to pricey land deal to expand Medical City

The University of Central Florida has agreed to a pricey land deal to expand the Lake Nona Medical City.

UCF officials voted Thursday to pay $15 million for 25 acres next to the medical school. They want to eventually build a teaching hospital there.

But as WFTV's Kathi Belich reports, even some board members who voted for it weren't totally comfortable with the deal.

UCF's board of trustees voted unanimously to pay $600,000 an acre for 25 acres between the College of Medicine and the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute. UCF paid 5.5 percent more than its only appraisal because the owner's sale price was non-negotiable.

The seller was Tavistock Group, which also donated 50 acres and $12.5 million to UCF for its medical school. One trustee said it's really like getting 75 acres for $200,000 per acre. Others saw it differently.

UCF trustee Rich Crotty, a former Orange County mayor and former property appraiser who helped create medical city, had reservations because the appraisal didn't consider the slumping real estate market.

UCF said getting a second appraisal would have been too expensive.

"We're kind of damned if we do, damned if we don't," Crotty said. "My main concerns have to do with market conditions being discounted because of the exclusivity of this piece of property."

The property is right in the middle of Medical City, and also close to the new veterans hospital.

Dr. Debra German, dean of the College of Medicine, pitched it as a must-have for UCF's teaching hospital, which she says will help achieve the medical school's goals to become top-tier.

"Education, research and patient care, and you cannot integrate them without a university teaching hospital, and that's why we need one," German said.

German said even a small teaching hospital could cost $200 million. So far, UCF has no partners and no money for a teaching hospital.

The deal also gives UCF the option of buying another 13 acres at Medical City for at least $600,000 an acre for the next five years.