The institute is an affiliate of University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine. Donna Shalala, president of the university, says the new facility is the university's first major construction project outside Miami-Dade County. The campus is located at PGA Boulevard and Fairway Drive in the PGA National development.

The new facility will triple the space available for the institute's patient care, research and educational programs. Bascom Palmer now operates a 13,000-sf center in Miami, which will remain in operation. That facility now serves about 30,000 patients a year, according to John Clarkson, SVP of medical affairs and dean of the Miller School, a number that has increased steadily from 5,500 when it opened in 1996.

Carmen A. Puliafito, chairman of the institute, says the new center "will allow us to see three times the number of patients, perform surgery in our own, custom-designed surgical center and create a magnet for the best and brightest ophthalmologic healthcare specialists." The University of Miami operates the only academic medical center serving Palm Beach and Martin counties. The combined populations of those counties is expected to reach 1.4 million by 2010, Puliafito says.