In the recently unveiled Kansas University master plan, school officials have outlined an ambitious building program that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now the question becomes how to pay for it.

One avenue being explored is to seek out private developers to construct the buildings and then the university would make payments to the developer through a lease agreement.

“We are looking at alternative funding options in implementing the master plan,” said Theresa Gordzica, KU’s chief business and planning officer.

“It’s a different way of financing, rather than the typical way of selling bonds and paying those bonds back,” Gordzica said. “This is driven more by the need for the facilities and looking at ways to accomplish the master plan as soon as possible.”

Using bonds also requires getting permission from the Legislature, and in recent years that has sometimes gotten tied up in political wrangling.

KU’s 10-year master plan includes new science and technology-focused buildings that would be part of “Innovation Way,” which would stretch from the main campus to West Campus. Preliminary estimates have pegged the price tag at $800 million.

One issue in going the private developer route involves state law that says the university must own any building built on its property.

Earlier this week, KU officials asked the Kansas Board of Regents if they should seek a legal opinion from the attorney general’s office to determine whether it could enter a long-term agreement with a developer, say for 30 years or 50 years, under the law.

But board members said they believed KU has the authority to enter these agreements and that seeking a legal opinion from the attorney general’s office wasn’t necessary. Gordzica said the school was reassessing whether to seek the legal opinion.