WEST PALM BEACH — Palm Beach County commissioners today approved a contract with The Scripps Research Institute that will put the biotech giant's Florida headquarters in Jupiter.
"I want the governor and everybody in the world today to know that we approved this contract," County Commissioner Karen Marcus said before today's vote.
The commission approval hinges on whether Gov. Jeb Bush agrees to reimburse the county up to $100 million for the construction of Scripps' headquarters should the research institute leave in the next 15 years.
Scripps Chief Operating Officer Doug Bingham said he had received an e-mail from the Governor's Office indicating Bush and FAU President Frank Brogan would support reimbursing the county, pending legislative approval.
County administrators and top Scripps officials returned to the negotiating table for two hours today to try to work out a compromise. They agreed to several changes that helped win the commissioners' support.
Bingham had said earlier this morning that the research institute could not continue to negotiate with the county without looking at other sites around the state.
"We have a window of opportunity to make this work in the state," Bingham told the commission. "I do not believe we, Scripps, can continue to negotiate exclusively with the county."
Bingham said the institute had no other site lined up.
"We have no other place we are negotiate in or around at this point of time," Bingham said.
Scripps President Richard Lerner today had stressed his commitment to keeping the institute's Florida headquarters in the county.
Lerner said he works every day to further the vision of creating a cluster of bioscience businesses in the county.
Gov. Bush on Monday swiftly rejected a last-minute request for help from Commissioner Burt Aaronson, the county's lead negotiator.
Aaronson wrote to Bush Monday morning asking the state to reimburse the county up to $100 million for the construction of Scripps' Florida headquarters at Florida Atlantic University, should the institute leave early.
"The idea that because they haven't been able to figure out where they want their facility to be located, we then accept their financial requirements is just not going to happen," Bush said Monday. "We've made some suggestions and I know some others have made some suggestions, and I hope that they can reach some consensus (today) and move on."
Aaronson called Bush's comments "completely off base."
"I think that the county commission has done everything that they possibly could," he said, pointing to the county's selection of homes: first Mecca Farms, then its offer of Florida Research Park twice and most recently a 4-3 vote for a split north county site.
Aaronson said he'll ask Scripps today for more time to negotiate a contract that would let its Florida campus be divided between Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter and the Briger tract in Palm Beach Gardens.
Bingham had said that Mecca is no longer an option because too much uncertainty remains with the 1,919-acre former orange grove.
Last year, environmental groups successfully challenged a permit the Army Corps of Engineers issued for Mecca Farms. A judge's order in November allowed construction of the institute's headquarters to continue at Mecca, but essentially nothing else.
The county asked Scripps to stop construction until a full environmental review is complete. A revised application was submitted to the corps recently.
