Gainesville, Fla. — Signet Development and the University of Florida (UF) held a ceremonial groundbreaking Oct. 23 for Infinity Hall, an entrepreneurial-based academic residential community at UF.
This is the first partnership between Signet Development and UF, and Signet will develop, finance, own and manage Infinity Hall, which is scheduled to house students beginning the fall semester of 2015.
Infinity Hall represents the first privatized partnership within Innovation Square, the university’s 40-acre live-work-play district. Innovation Square is being sustainably developed with the goal of fusing the private sector with the university. Infinity Hall furthers this mission by creating an open and collaborative residential area that is designed to cultivate innovation, accelerate the development of new ideas and encourage students of all disciplines to interact.
“Infinity Hall is the first private sector finance project to arise from the vision of public-private partnership that defines Innovation Square,” said UF President Bernie Machen. “We achieved this milestone in concert with the developer, builder and owner, Signet Enterprises. Infinity Hall is the first residence hall in Gainesville — and among only a handful in the nation — designed for young entrepreneurs who mean so much to our future as a community and as a country.”
In addition to residential space, Infinity Hall will have collaboration space and teaming areas that are designed to promote idea generation and creativity. The ground floor of the building will be dedicated to these living-learning areas and will be open to all students as an additional amenity. These spaces will be flexible and can be modified for students of all disciplines. Infinity Hall is also positioned directly across the street from the Florida Innovation Hub business incubator, which will further integrate UF students and the business community.
The five-story, 97,000 square-foot, 312-bed living learning center is being designed by Perkins + Will out of Atlanta and built by general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie of Jacksonville, Florida. Construction started in March 2014.