MANATEE — The University of South Florida wants to expand its Sarasota-Manatee campus with dormitory rooms as well as an expanded campus bookstore and a coffee shop.
USF will begin its search for a developer in August to build several new buildings on a little used piece of property on the southeast side of campus. Currently five one-story buildings — part of a former Howard Johnson motel — on 3.5 acres is used for labs and storage by USF. One of the buildings houses a Barnes and Nobel that serves as a bookstore for both USF and New College.
The new development will include doubling of the bookstore’s current 6,000 square feet with room for USF merchandise, a coffee shop — with the university hoping for a Starbucks — and a 125-bed dormitory, which would be the first residential units built on campus, said Richard Lyttle, USF’s director of facilities planning.
“We’re looking at the development to go hand in hand with our expanded four-year programs,” he said.
Currently, mostly juniors and seniors attend USF Sarasota-Manatee but with the program expansion the school hopes to serve more freshman and sophomores, who have a greater demand for on-campus housing, Lyttle said.
Details are still sketchy, The project is still in a very early stage of development, he said. A total cost has not yet been determined.
The university will send out a request for proposals in either August or September, inviting developers to put forth plans on how they would carry out construction, said Arthur Guilford, vice president and campus executive officer of USF Sarasota-Manatee.
“Quite honestly I’d like for it to be someone locally,” he said.
The university currently is focused on finishing its project in North Port, which will allow classes now held on the State College of Florida Venice Campus to be moved to North Port.
That project is scheduled to be finished in late July and the university will then shift focus to the new development, Guilford said.
The new development will not rely on student fees, but will hopefully be funded by a developer who would enter into a long-term leasing contract with the school, Guilford said.
The university hopes to beautify a half-mile stretch of U.S. 41 that runs in front of it, which would make the area safer for students.
“We think that with the university here, that we can become a catalyst for businesses along 41 which would benefit surrounding neighborhoods,” Guilford said.
