Gene Bleymaier is stepping aside after five years as San Jose State’s athletic director to focus on essential South Campus facility projects.

Bleymaier will serve as a special advisor to president Mary Papazian “with responsibility for ensuring momentum and progress on development plans for our athletics facilities,” according to a news release issued by the university.

Deputy Marie Tuite will serve as interim athletic director, a role she has held previously.

“I am looking forward to this opportunity to focus fully on our South Campus master plan, which is critical to the future success of our athletics programs,” Bleymaier said.

Papazian recently declined to commit to an extension for Bleymaier.

“When we have an announcement one way or the other,’’ she said. “We will make it.”

That announcement came Thursday.

The news was delivered to athletic department personnel during a mandatory all-staff meeting at 9 a.m. No timeframe was given for the search to find a permanent replacement for Bleymaier.

Tuite was the interim athletic director in the spring of 2012, after Tom Bowen left for Memphis. She led SJSU through the final steps required to gain entrance to the Mountain West Conference.

Bleymaier’s tenure was one of mixed success, at best, on high-profile matters.

* He hired Dave Wojcik as basketball coach seems, which seems like a shrewd move: The Spartans are 12-10 in Wojcik’s fourth season and vastly more competitive than they were just a year ago.

* But Bleymaier whiffed on the football front. His decision to hire football coach Ron Caragher in Dec. ’12, after Mike MacIntyre left for Colorado, was met with skepticism at the time and proved a miscalculation.

The Spartans failed to produce a winning record in any of Caragher’s four seasons, and he was dismissed in November.

(Brent Brennan, a former SJSU assistant coach, was hired weeks later at Papazian’s behest.)

* SJSU also failed to break ground on the North End Zone project under Bleymaier, even though it received state approval years ago.

The football operations center would be the centerpiece of the new South Campus; it’s viewed as integral to the program’s long-term success in the Mountain West.

The Spartans are finishing a golf practice facility and moving to the next phase of the South Campus plan. All facilities must be funded with private donations.

The latest estimates peg the cost of the football ops center at approximately $40 million.