A plan to build a 750-space parking garage to serve northern areas of downtown will be up for preliminary discussion at Tuesday’s meeting of the Lawrence City Commission.

Commissioners will hear a proposal from The World Company, owner of the Lawrence Journal-World, for a $9.79 million expansion to the city-owned parking garage near the former Riverfront Mall. The expansion, to the south, would have four levels, one partially underground.

The garage would be on property in the 600 block of New Hampshire Street currently used for World Company parking, a metered city parking lot, and it would take in vacant property east of buildings formerly housing Reuter Organ Co. The new garage would have entrances from New Hampshire and Rhode Island streets and connect to the Riverfront garage.

Ralph Gage, general manager of The World Company, said the idea was developed after Lawrence Mayor Mike Rundle more than a year ago expressed interest in the city participating in plans the company had to build a private parking garage to serve its downtown campus.

Gage also said the garage could help meet parking demand identified in a 1992 city study that showed the northern area of downtown had a deficit of 440 parking spaces.

“That was before the Sprint offices located here, before the Marriott, before our company’s expansion,” Gage said. “We think there only will be more pressure on parking as City Hall keeps expanding and as more leasable space in the Riverfront area develops.”

The proposal calls for the city to fund the estimated $9.79 million in construction costs for the project. The company would donate nearly 33,000 square feet of property valued at more than $650,000. The World Company also would commit to lease 377 parking spaces in the garage and pay the city market rates for the spaces, which currently amounts to slightly more than $90,000 a year. The garage would be fully owned by the city.

Under that scenario, the project would require the equivalent of a 1 to 1.3 mill levy increase in the city’s budget to issue bonds to fund the garage over a 20-year period, City Manager Mike Wildgen said.

Rundle, who suggested the idea of partnering with The World Company because he thought it might make for a more efficient use of downtown space, said funding will be the major challenge.

“I’m sure it is probably going to be tricky in terms of the city’s debt load, but I want to hear more about it and exhaust all our options,” Rundle said.

The city’s Parking Advisory Board has reviewed the proposal and agreed it “conceptually” fits into downtown’s long-range parking plans.

“I think they agreed that there appears to be a certain demand for parking in the north end of downtown that isn’t being met today,” Wildgen said. “But I don’t think anyone necessarily thought it was going to solve the parking complaints we have in the summer when people are trying to find a place to park to go to the aquatic center. It’s still probably farther than most people want to walk” to the swimming pool.

The advisory committee didn’t recommend how to fund the project.

Gage said the company is interested in finding out what city commissioners think.

“We recognize at this point it is still pretty nebulous,” Gage said. “We just want to find out if they like it enough to take the next step. I don’t see where they have anything to lose by taking it to a committee for further study.”

Late last year the city completed an approximately $7 million, 500-space parking garage in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street as part of the Downtown 2000 project.

The commission’s Tuesday meeting will begin at 6:45 p.m. at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.