Eight trustees for the University of South Florida endorsed building a new medical school in downtown Tampa on Friday.
Trustees voted for the new project to be built on an acre of land, donated to the school by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn said building the school in that location will be a game-changer for downtown Tampa.
"For a lot of reasons it makes sense," Buckhorn said. "Both the bottom line for USF and the competitiveness of USF, and the fact that it will drive downtown in ways that we haven't even imagined."
The next step is for all 13 trustees to vote on the project at a meeting in December.