Building out the University at Buffalo into three distinctive campuses would cost about $5 billion over a minimum of 20 years, UB officials said Tuesday while unveiling the university’s first master plan in nearly 40 years.

While UB officials say it’s a $5 billion investment that would generate $20 billion in economic returns for the region, the question remains: How to pay for it, particularly in such difficult economic times.

UB officials point out that this is a long-term plan for the university.

“The point of it is what the university can be in two decades,” UB President John B. Simpson said at a press conference.

“This [economic] situation we are dealing with today, I do not anticipate we’ll be dealing with in two decades,” Simpson said. “God help us if we are.”

Details of the final version of the 248-page planning document — which has been in the works for more than two years — were showcased Tuesday at the Center for the Arts on the North Campus in Amherst for about 500 people.

A central piece of the strategic plan is relocating UB’s Medical School, and four other health-related schools, from the South Campus on Main Street to downtown, which could take several forms, planners said.

UB officials are interested in obtaining a 15-acre parcel along Goodell Street and Michigan Avenue, but it’s not UB’s only option downtown.

The master plan shows other alternatives for the medical school by collaborating with Kaleida Health and building on property it has secured, said Robert G. Shibley, senior adviser for campus planning.

There is some flexibility, Shibley said.

“How we draw it today is probably not like how it’s finally going to be,” he said of designs for the downtown campus.

While planners have heard a wide range of views about the school’s new master plan, most have been receptive to the broad concepts, Shibley said.

That includes plans that call for a more attractive North Campus, where glass would replace some of the cold, brick facade to draw more sunlight into the buildings. The retail commons would be demolished to make a large oval green space to connect the campus better with Lake LaSalle. More housing and retail would be intermingled along a section of Lee Roadto make the campus look more like a Main Street.

For the South Campus, it means scraping away some of the temporary structures that have long been on the grounds and getting back to the original design that highlights the Main Street campus’ historic buildings and classic quads. The South Campus would become the new home of the Law School, along with the schools of Education and Social Work, which would join the School of Architecture and Planning on Main Street.

The entire master plan can be found online at

www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/plan

.