Washington State University Spokane likely will seek $51.9 million in state funding during the next six years for capital purchases and projects envisioned under its next 10-year master plan, which is still in the draft stage.

Looking forward through the 2019-2021 biennium, WSU plans to request a total of $27.9 million for real estate acquisitions and $24 million to construct a technical and data center and facilities maintenance building, at the Riverpoint Campus here, the draft plan shows.

Recommendations for partial funding for acquisitions and construction have been included in WSU’s $214 million 2015-17 biennial capital budget request, which the WSU Board of Regents approved in a recent resolution.

The resolution gives WSU President Elson Floyd authority to forward the capital budget request to the Washington Legislature to consider in the capital budget for the state’s next biennium, says Terren Roloff, a WSU Spokane spokeswoman.

In the real estate portion of the request, the university will seek $1.9 million in the 2015-2017 biennium and $26 million in the 2017-2019 biennium, WSU’s budget request shows.

Rusty Pritchard, WSU Spokane’s capital planning director, declines to disclose specific real estate the university is interested in adding here.

“Until it’s approved and our due diligence is complete, we can’t jeopardize fair-market values and appraisals,” Pritchard says.

WSU Spokane is located on the 55-acre Riverpoint Campus in the University District east of downtown.

In regard to the funding request for the proposed data center and facilities maintenance building, WSU is seeking $300,000 for preliminary design work in the 2015-2017 biennium, $3 million for formal design in the 2017-2019 biennium, and $20.7 million for construction in the 2019-2021 biennium, Pritchard says.

Projects of such scope usually are tied up in six-year cycles of capital funding, he says.

The project would consolidate the WSU Spokane data center and information technology department in one facility, Pritchard says.

The data center currently is located in the basement of the Phase 1 Classroom Building, which is used jointly by WSU Spokane and Eastern Washington University, near the center of the Riverpoint Campus.

“Our information technology department is spread out all over the campus and taking up academic space,” Pritchard says, adding that the consolidation would free up space for the academic and research missions of the university

Although Prichard says it’s still too early even for a conceptual design for the building, the draft master plan lists its projected size at 89,200 square feet of floor space.

The site for the proposed building hasn’t been determined, but it likely would be near the Jensen-Byrd building, a few blocks southwest of the Phase 1 building.

The draft plan envisions redeveloping the historic Jensen-Byrd building as a multiuse building that would include offices, educational space, retail stores, food services, and conference and event space.

Roloff says WSU will again seek development proposals for the six-story, 179,000-square-foot building through a public-private partnership. Two previous proposals failed to get off the drawing boards, and historic preservation advocates successfully rallied to save the 105-year-old former hardware warehouse from the wrecking ball.

Although not identified in the capital budget request, the draft master plan envisions up to an additional 400,000 square feet of building space on the campus to accommodate anticipated needs for academic, clinical, research, and support space in the next 10 years.

Roloff says WSU’s Board of Regents will review a final draft of the master plan update for potential approval in the fall.

The master plan was last updated in 2009. Since then, WSU Spokane has constructed the 125,000-square-foot Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences Building, at 205 E. Spokane Falls Boulevard, where it has moved its College of Pharmacy from the main WSU campus, in Pullman, and expanded other medical and health sciences programs. The Riverpoint Campus also is home to WSU’s new College of Medical Sciences.

Although the master plan update focuses on WSU’s health sciences and academic growth, the university is collaborating with other educational institutions that use the Riverpoint Campus, Pritchard says.

Eastern Washington University, for example, has facilities and academic programs in multiple locations on the campus. Whitworth University and the Community Colleges of Spokane also offer programs on the campus, and Gonzaga University, north of the Riverpoint Campus, is within the University District.