UWF going ahead with Conference Center, Hotel, Restaurant spaces

According to NorthEscambia.com http://www.northescambia.com/2013/02/uwf-moves-forward-with-conference-center-hotel

I wish my alma mater the best. They sure have some ambitious plans lately, with the purchase of Scenic Hills Golf Course, plans for a football stadium, etc.

Quote :

UWF Moves Forward With Conference Center, Hotel
February 23, 2013

The University of West Florida’s development arm is moving forward with a new hotel and conference center on North Davis Highway and Campus Drive.

The University of West Florida Business Enterprises, Inc. board of directors and the UWF Board of Trustees voted this week to approve an affiliation agreement with Vieste, LLC, of Chicago for the $41 million development.

The groundbreaking on the development is planned for June 2013.

Included in the mixed-use development plans are 100 hotel guest room suites as well as 300 rooms of housing for non-traditional and upper divisional students. Additionally, the agreement references potential decentralized restaurant parcels located within the multi-use site.

If UWF is going ahead with this expensive project, why did they say they didn't have the money for the Maritime Museum? There must be some financing issues here that I clearly don't comprehend.

PB, maybe it's possible that they had already budgeted in the expansion on campus before they wanted a museum at Studerville. That's my guess.

My oldest is raising hell about this because his tuition has already gone up 15% and is expected to go up another 10% next year. Granted tuition is a small part of the pie but to a starving college student already struggling to make it that is a lot of money.