TAMPA A group of University of South Florida trustees on Thursday endorsed building a new medical school in downtown Tampa, a key recommendation that could quickly move the proposed project forward.

"I believe this location will really transform both USF and the city of Tampa in profound ways," said Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

The five trustees who oversee USF Health's medical and educational programs voted to build the new Morsani College of Medicine on an acre of land in downtown that Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has offered to donate for the project.

"This is bigger than baseball," Mayor Bob Buckhorn told the trustees.

Then he added: "Please do it. I don't want to have to turn off the water at the university."

Vinik is on the verge of remaking the southern end of downtown Tampa, and a new medical school fits the kind of high-end development he wants to build around the home of his hockey team, the Amalie Arena.

The projected cost of the new, 12-story medical school is between $150 million to $163 million. USF has assembled around $130 million in funding and would need to find other sources to complete the project. The new medical school office tower could have 287,824 square feet of usable space.

Lockwood presented a plan for building not just a new medical school, but also a medical office building next door and an 1,800-car parking garage that would serve both.

The next step would be for the full board of trustees to vote on the health committee's recommendation at its next meeting, Dec. 4. The full board generally gives great weight to the committee's recommendation.

USF has just a few months to make a decision. The university needs to decide where to put the new medical school so it can ask the Board of Governors for tens of millions in state funding. That board meets Jan. 21-22 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

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USF trustee committee endorses downtown Tampa medical school