Douglas County taxpayers are buying into an incubator that could give birth to the business world’s Next Big Thing.

County commissioners on Monday gave preliminary approval for the Lawrence Regional Technology Center and the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce to use public money to buy a west Lawrence office building that will provide low-cost office space and services to budding technology companies.

“Our dream should be that LRTC finds us a Google IPO,” said Bob Johnson, a Douglas County commissioner. “As part of that IPO, Stanford University stands to receive $750 million. I just hope I live long enough to see something like that with the University of Kansas and Lawrence, Kansas. That’s the arena we’re in here.”

The two economic development groups announced in June that they had struck a deal to buy the former headquarters building of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America at 1617 St. Andrews Drive. County and city commissioners must approve the purchase because the groups want to use $605,000 that the two governments set aside for an incubator building in the mid-1990s.

LRTC currently leases about 3,500 square feet of the 11,000-square-foot office building. By purchasing the building, the center will have more room to house young, promising technology companies.

“It’s a city and county investment in the long-term economic viability of this community,” said Ted Haggart, president and CEO of Douglas County Bank and a member of the incubator’s board of directors. “It’s just a good, healthy investment.”

The groups are buying the property for $750,000 from Donald Stephens. The $605,000 in public money had been budgeted within the past decade for such a purpose.

County commissioners agreed in principle to allow its share of the money to be spent on the building, but decided to wait until Lawrence city commissioners could review the plan before offering formal approval. City commissioners are scheduled to discuss the proposal at 6:35 p.m. today at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.