PORTLAND, Ore. -- For years the Oregon Health & Science University has wondered what to do with the Schnitzer Campus, the nearly 20 acres of undeveloped brownfield property it owns on the eastern corner of South Waterfront.

Now OHSU and other schools in Oregon University System know what kind of building they want to put there and may get funding to construct it.

The state universities are eyeing the site for the OUS/OHSU Life Sciences Collaborative, a new research and education institute that would house programs and research efforts from OHSU, Portland State University, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the Oregon Institute of Technology.

It also would provide space for private research firms.

A Portland subcommittee envisions a 300,000-square-foot building and will submit a $250 million capital construction request to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education.

If the request is accepted, it will go to Gov. Ted Kulongoski for approval.

But the subcommittee has no contingency for funding the project if the request is turned down, said Jim Francesconi, a member of the subcommittee.

But members say they think it will pass based on what they have heard from Kulongoski.

The budget request is a big "if," said Jean Mah, a principal at Perkins + Will, a Los Angeles-based architecture and design firm working on the project.

The institute's supporters within the subcommittee want the project to stay on pace with the South Corridor Portland-Milwaukie light-rail route, which will run adjacent to the building.

That would set the completion date between 2010 and 2013, Mah said.

Aside from rebuilding and re-branding Portland higher education, Marvin Kaiser, a dean at PSU, said the project would refocus development energy in the South Waterfront.

"There's been a lot of discussion about whether or not South Waterfront has lived up to its investment potential," Kaiser said.

Francesconi said he hopes the neighborhood will be known for more than high-rise condominiums.

Marilyn Lanier, vice provost for academic affairs at OHSU, said the project could fuel future growth on the Schnitzer Campus for the next 20 years.

"If this does become the first building on (the Schnitzer Campus), it will be a great statement - that we're setting the stage for a linkage between local businesses and other interests," Lanier said.

Funding options include the possible use of lottery-backed bonds.

Kaiser hopes the institute will relieve pressure from increasing university enrollment in Portland, which in the last decade has nudged PSU's enrollment to the state's highest.

"We're under some pretty tight space constraints at PSU," he said.

Kaiser said some of PSU's health and life sciences classes and research would move into the building as would other partner schools.