Big boost: Hyatt and Cici Brown give $25M to expand Embry-Riddle research park in Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH — Brown & Brown Chairman J. Hyatt Brown has long been involved in efforts to pump up the local economy as a member of the CEO Business Alliance. On Thursday evening, he and his wife Cici gave economic development efforts in Volusia County an even bigger boost.

The couple announced they are donating $25 million to help expand the research park at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. It is the single largest gift in the university's history.

The expansion project, unveiled Thursday night at the Ormond Beach home of Embry-Riddle board chairman Mori Hosseini and his wife Forough, will double the size of the five-year-old research park along Clyde Morris Boulevard, just south of the university's flagship campus. The project will add three buildings totaling 105,000 square feet of space.

Expanding the research park has the potential to significantly grow the local economy, according to Embry-Riddle officials. Since opening its first building, the MicaPlex in 2017, the park has served as an incubator to two dozen startup companies. Collectively, those companies have created more than 120 jobs. The average pay of those jobs is over $78,000 a year.

"This is an investment that we have thought a lot about, " said J. Hyatt Brown. "The long-term success for the people who live here and their children and for succeeding generations is going to be built around the ability to learn and to come back here and have a wonderful position for you and your family."

 "Suppose someone came along and created something like Apple right here? Hoo-whee," he said.

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The project is expected to break ground this summer, as soon as Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill already approved by the state Legislature to provide another $25 million in state funding.

The gift by the Browns was to match the anticipated funding from the state.

Construction set to begin this summer

The expansion project will include a 65,000-square-foot complex called the Cici & Hyatt Brown Center for Aerospace Technology as well as two 20,000-square-foot aircraft hangars. The three buildings will be constructed along the west side of Clyde Morris, just south of the research park's existing MicaPlex complex and the adjacent wind-tunnel facility. The park includes a research hangar located just west of the planned Center for Aerospace Technology.

The research park also has plans to add a 10,000-square-foot two-building called the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center on the east side of Clyde Morris.

The target date for completion of the Cici & Hyatt Brown Center for Aerospace Technology and two adjacent hangars is June 2023, said Rodney Cruise, the university's senior vice president of administration and planning.

"In 15 months, it (the research park) will double in size," he said. "We have this project ready to go. The $25 million gift from Hyatt and Cici is already committed. The Florida Legislature already approved $25 million more from the state. We're just waiting for the Governor to sign the bill."

Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Embry-Riddle on Friday morning to hold a press conference where he signed House Bill 1467 into law that affects K-12 public schools throughout the state, but not colleges or universities. HB 1467 places a 12-year limit on how long public school district board members can serve and that also gives parents and members of the public increased access to the process of selecting and removing school library books and instructional materials.

DeSantis did not take questions from the media at the news conference. He also declined to answer a question posed by The News-Journal as he walked towards his car regarding the bill that would provide $25 million in state funding for the Embry-Riddle research park expansion project.

DeSantis, however, did take a few minutes following the news conference to meet privately with Embry-Riddle officials.  

Research park generated $137M in economic impact for Florida

Mori Hosseini at the dinner at his house Thursday evening thanked the Browns for their generous donation. "Everyone at Embry-Riddle is deeply grateful for the vision and phenomenal generosity of Cici and Hyatt Brown," he said. "Their selfless investment in our community and the Embry-Riddle mission of education will inspire us for many years to come."

The research park at Embry-Riddle generated $137 million in economic impact to the Florida economy in 2021, according to a recent study commissioned by the university.

Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler recalled attending the grand opening for the MicaPlex a week after he began his job at the university in March 2017. "I thought, wow, this is going to be amazing," he said. He said he remembered thinking it might take a while for the 65,000-square-foot business incubator/research lab facility to attract tenants. 

To his surprise, "Within a year or two, we were full," he said. "We want to keep growing."

Jason Ruckert, vice president for enrollment management at Embry-Riddle, said while the university has always had a reputation for being a leading aviation/aerospace university from an academic standpoint, that was not always reflected in the appearance of the Daytona Beach campus.

"When I came in 2005, it was an older campus," he said. That is no longer the case, thanks to the addition in recent years of several gleaming new buildings, including the MicaPlex and wind tunnel facility, the Mori Hosseini student union building and the Jim W. Henderson Administration & Welcome Center. "Now I walk around with a feeling of pride," said Ruckert. "It rivals any innovative technical university in the world. When you can get prospective students to see our campus, the decision (to attend here) is easily made."

Cici Brown remembers when Embry-Riddle relocated from South Florida to Daytona Beach in 1965.

"Think about the trucks coming from Miami bringing this institution here and what you've done," she told the gathering at the Hosseini home which included Embry-Riddle board members, administrators and faculty members. "It's phenomenal."

Hyatt and Cici Brown have made a number of sizeable donations to benefit the community in recent years. Those gifts have led to the creation of the $25 million Cici & Hyatt Brown Museum of Art at the Museum of Arts & Sciences in Daytona Beach that opened in 2015, the $18 million Cici & Hyatt Brown Hall for Health & Innovation currently under construction at Stetson University in DeLand, and the $30 million makeover of the Riverfront Park in downtown Daytona Beach. The portion of the park north of International Speedway Boulevard is on track to open in either late May or early June, said Hyatt Brown.

"I am 84, I'll be 85 (in July), and Cici will be 80 in May," said Hyatt Brown. "It is our intent to continue to make these kind of investments so the totality of this county can continue to grow and prosper."