KANSAS CITY (AP) - The University of Missouri-Kansas City has unveiled plans for a major expansion and renovation that officials hope will raise the school’s profile and entice more students to live on campus.

The first phase of the plan would spend more than $350 million on 11 new or expanded facilities on the university’s two campuses in the next three years. After that, the university envisions spending another $220 million on new facilities within seven years.

The three-year plan includes more student housing, new convocation and athletics facilities, an expanded library and a new student union. It also proposes building a hotel and conference center, retail development, new quarters for the pharmacy and nursing programs, and a central air-conditioning plant for the midtown campus.

The seven-year plan would add a conference and wellness center with recreation and dining facilities, professional office space and clinical and research facilities on the university’s Hospital Hill campus, with parking and a new conservatory of music and dance on the midtown campus.

Chancellor Guy Bailey presented his plan to the UMKC Board of Trustees last week.

"The plan is exactly what UMKC needs for people to recognize it as a gem in this community," said Hugh Zimmer, a member of the UMKC board.

Zimmer said the plan is responsive to a 2005 report, "Time to Get It Right," that called for strengthening higher education in the Kansas City area and for increasing investment in life-science research.

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