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Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland Community College and the city of Portland announced plans Monday to build a $100 million, nine-story downtown building that would house offices and academic facilities.

The project set for a city-owned parking lot at the southeast corner of Southwest Fourth Avenue and Montgomery Street would bring together the OHSU–PSU School of Public Health, PSU’s Graduate School of Education, PCC‘s dental program and city government offices.

The institutions plan to open the building in September 2020. It would mark the first time all three higher-education institutions and the city shared a building.

A request for early assistance published Monday called for a nine-story building with ground-floor commercial use.

The ground floor would hold a mix of retailers and restaurants, according to a PSU news release. PSU plans to operate a low-cost counseling center on the site, and PCC would move its dental clinic from its Sylvania campus to the downtown building.

The partners have asked the state Legislature to approve $51 million in bonds for the project. Additional funding would come from the three institutions and the city, which would all have ownership interests in the project, according to a PSU news release.

PSU plans to purchase the lot from the Portland Development Commission.

The project is planned on a site previously targeted for the Oregon Sustainability Center, a proposal that then-Mayor Sam Adams and then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski launched in 2012 and fizzled when the Legislature declined to approve $80 million in bonds.

A PSU spokeswoman said the new proposal is different.

鈥淚t’s really a brand new project. It has new partners and it’s going to be a different building,鈥� PSU’s Suzanne Pardington Effros said.

The project is at the top of the list of capital priorities from Oregon universities, Effros said. 鈥淏eing at the top of the list makes us pretty confident,鈥� she said.

Bora Architects has done some preliminary design work for the project, Effros said.

A request for proposals for a design firm will be posted in April, and design work is slated to begin in July.聽The team is aiming to break ground in 2018.