After a $50 million investment into an Arlington campus, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine opened Jacksonville’s first medical school July 17.
LECOM, which built its Jacksonville campus at Jacksonville University, hosted a ribbon-cutting to open its doors to around 75 Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine students, a field of medicine that focuses on whole-body care and preventive medicine.
“We don’t just look to fill the class, but we’re looking to build the future positions for Northeast Florida and Jacksonville,” said Richard Terry, who helped develop LECOM’s campuses at Jacksonville and Elmira, New York. “Together, we create an environment where students receive an outstanding medical education here at LECOM and have the experience of this really incredible university and university life.”
LECOM purchased the land for its four-year medical school on 9.87 acres along Dolphin Pointe Boulevard in March 2025 for $5.22 million. The school is part of the 55-acre JU Medical Mall.
In addition to the LECOM facility, the JU Medical Mall features the JU Health Sciences Complex and its School of Orthodontics Teaching Clinic; JU’s Occupational Therapy teaching facility for clinical training; and the 146-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, Dolphin Pointe Health Care.
LECOM is also partnering with Baptist Health, UF Health St. Johns and AdventHealth, which will provide third- and fourth-year clinical training opportunities for medical students.
LECOM’s opening at Jacksonville University marks its fifth campus. Headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania, LECOM also operates schools in Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Elmira; Bradenton; and now, Jacksonville. The school says that it has graduated more than 18,000 healthcare professionals since its 1992 founding.
LECOM’s campus also marks a second postgraduate expansion for Jacksonville University, which opened its law school in 2022.
“It mystified me that this incredible city that ... I moved into in 2012 had no honors college, had no STEAM institute, had no law school, had no medical school. It’s almost as though we were trying to stay just a little bit below our weight, so we wouldn’t be disappointed,” said Tim Cost, the university’s chancellor.
“I thank a very aspirational board of trustees ... for having the guts to say, ‘Let’s go forward and try these things.’”
LECOM expects its campus to generate an estimated $91.1 million economic impact for Florida and Jacksonville, according to a news release. By 2030, the campus is projected to support more than 600 jobs while contributing an estimated $60 million annually to the regional economy.
“This is especially meaningful because healthcare is about more than hospitals and clinics,” Mayor Donna Deegan said. “It’s about ensuring that every child, every family, every senior, every neighborhood has access to compassionate, high-quality healthcare.”