FIU, Broward College to Open Miramar Campus

Broward College and Florida International University are teaming up to open a new campus, the latest in a westward expansion of higher education in Broward County.

The 89,000-square-foot-site on S.W. 145th Avenue in Miramar is slated to open in August. The $21 million four-story facility will include classrooms, science labs and meeting spaces for both schools and a shared common area and dining facility.

Broward College already has eight other campuses and academic centers, including locations in Davie, Coconut Creek, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and a large online program. The offerings at the new site will focus on business, supply chain management and global trade and logistics.

FIU will vacate its current space at the Pines Center Academic Village on Sheridan Street. The new site will continue to offer undergraduate programs in liberal arts, business and construction management and graduate programs in business, engineering, education and public administration. New programs will likely be added over time, FIU President Mark Rosenberg said.

Both colleges will be marketing to older working adults who want a college degree close to home.

“Broward College has seen consistent growth in the Miramar area, and this new innovative mixed-used facility will address the need to provide affordable and advanced training to the community that we serve,” College President David Armstrong said Tuesday.

The college plans to keep open two nearby locations, at Miramar Town Center, which has 1,500 students, and the Pines Academic Center in Pembroke Pines, which has 3,500 students.

Broward College also shares space with Florida Atlantic University in Fort Lauderdale and Davie.

FIU, based west of Miami, doesn’t have any similar joint-use facilities, although its 1,400 students on the Pines campus share space with Pembroke Pines Charter High School.

“We basically have outgrown the facility, and the opportunity to partner directly with Broward College was one we had to take,” Rosenberg said. “We think it’s a perfect location; I-75 is a world class asset. Tens of thousands of people are on it every day.”

Other colleges have also opened or expanded in Southwest Broward in recent years, including Keiser University in Pembroke Pines and Strayer University, the University of Phoenix, Devry University and Brown Mackie College in Miramar.

The building is being funded and developed by Washington, D.C.-based Municipal Acquisitions, which will lease space to the two colleges. The schools say they chose this option because state dollars for new construction have dried up in recent years.

Although FAU is considered the dominant public university in Broward County, FIU has a long history here. In the late 1980s, the Legislature approved funding to construct a downtown Fort Lauderdale tower that was shared by FAU, FIU and Broward College.

FIU also offered a limited number of classes in Davie in the 1990s. FIU moved its Broward programs to the high-growth Pembroke Pines area in 2001, largely as a result of turf battles with FAU, Rosenberg said.

“We agreed we would bend but we would never break in terms of our commitment to Broward County,” Rosenberg said.