UPDATE: This story was updated

Portland State University struck out in 2015 when it asked state lawmakers for $17 million to help build a new home for the Graduate School of Education. But the upside did not become apparent until Monday.

That's when PSU President Wim Wiewel revealed a bigger and bolder vision for the parking lot on the edge of campus, and the new partnerships that would make it happen: A $100 million hub for public health, education and city services.

The new tower at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Montgomery Street, is expected to open by 2020. It brings PSU, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland Community College and the city together in an effort that wasn't certain less than a year ago.

Last summer, a business partner, described in PSU documents only as "an educational non-profit organization," abruptly walked away from the negotiating table after years of planning.

The unnamed company "got cold feet," Wiewel said in an interview Monday. "We saw the project go away,"

Wiewel declined to identify the organization, but said he was "very upset, very bothered" by its decision to pull out. The exit meant PSU - already in perpetual fundraising mode and facing uncertain budgetary times- had to figure out how to come up with another $15 million for the project, or dramatically shrink it.

Wiewel was tired of asking donors for money to pay for buildings. He'd been fundraising for the $60.5 million business school since arriving at PSU in 2008, and calling for cash on the $51.1 million Viking Pavilion renovation, and already eyeing donors to help pay for a planned $70 million renovation of Neuberger Hall in coming years.

"You can only go to the well so many times," Wiewel said, "so we just needed a different way."

That different way presented itself in an already existing partnership: The OHSU-PSU School of Public Health.

The joint school, launched in 2014, had no home, but eyed one sometime in the future. The program is still awaiting accreditation but has some 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students. It is spread out between the two campuses, with some staff and faculty up on Portland's Marquam Hill and others throughout the city's Park Blocks.

Last fall, PSU officials decided to see if they could accelerate the timeline for finding a permanent home for the school, Wiewel said.

In September, PSU contacted OHSU President Joe Robertson to gauge interest on making the site at Fourth and Montgomery that home.

Robertson agreed to the plan. "We are just so thrilled to be a partner in this development," Robertson said Monday during a news conference on PSU's campus.

The schools will jointly raise $15 million for the project, a new prospect for the two schools.

"Anytime you say this is a joint fundraising thing you're taking a leap of faith," Wiewel said. "But fortunately, we feel very good."

On Monday morning, Wiewel was joined by Robertson, PCC President Mark Mitsui and Mayor Ted Wheeler.

By 2020, the coalition expects to open the new building downtown. Still in the design phase, the building is projected to be seven to nine stories tall. Once completed, it would be one of the largest academic structures in the city and fill a gaping void for PSU and the city along the nearby MAX and Portland Streetcar lines.

It will be the eventual new home of both the Graduate School of Education and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Plans include a community dental clinic, behavioral health services and spots for a ground floor restaurant and retail space.

It will also fill the lot once set aside for the Oregon Sustainability Center, the ill-fated environmental building plan that was shelved by then-Mayor Sam Adams in 2012.

While he won't be in the president's chair when the building is completed, Wiewel can claim victory on a couple fronts.

He negotiated a deal with the city after then-Mayor Charlie Hales pushed to close the short-lived urban renewal district that was expected to pay for $50.3 million in projects on campus. The city agreed to hand over the 33,500-square-foot property at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Montgomery Street, recently appraised at $7.3 million, to PSU for $1.

"He had no idea that he would get pushback," Wiewel said of Hales' proposal to shutter the urban renewal area, "and that he would have to come up with something equivalent."

The city also agreed to be a tenant in a new building. Wheeler said the city will move a yet-to-be-named city bureau to the building once completed. Portland will chip in $15 million to own its 32,000-square-foot space, likely by issuing debt. The city, in need of additional office space, will occupy two floors.

PCC is expected to move its dental hygiene and assisting from the Southwest Sylvania campus in Southwest Portland to downtown. The school will pay $15 million for its 30,000-square-feet in the building and use bonds approved by taxpayers in 2008.

On Monday, much of the news conference centered on the public health crises facing the city.

David Bangsberg, a Portland native and the dean of the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, said his school will be at the forefront of research and public policy in the metro area.

One-third of Oregon women suffer from depression, he said. More Oregonians die from opioid overdoses than traffic fatalities. Some 138,000 children under five-years-old don't have access to basic health services or early childhood education.

His school will study all those issues and possible public policy solutions, he said. "Our future health and well-being is in the hands of our students," he said.

The program will help students get "the skills they need to reverse these challenges."

Like its failed predecessor, the sustainability center, the building is also heavily reliant on public dollars. The group is seeking $51 million in state bonds to help pay for the building.

Without it, the building won't happen.

Wheeler said the building presents an "unparalleled opportunity for students and the community at large."

The four institutions expect to press lawmakers to approve the capital construction request in the coming months, but they aren't too concerned.

The project, even without OHSU's participation, already ranked as one of the top priorities in the state.

"I would be very surprised if this is not funded," said Wheeler, the former State Treasurer of the bond request. It is listed as the top individual project request by the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, above competing high-profile requests such as the University of Oregon's $100 million Knight science campus and Oregon State University's $69 million for further expansion in Bend.

Wiewel said the only partner we're stilling waiting for is the Legislature.

"We feel quite positive and encouraged that this will happen," he said Monday.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen