Leaders of the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence don’t yet have the money for a new teen center that would include everything from a gymnasium to a dance room to special spaces for students to work on homework.

But the organization has lots of hopes for a center and soon may have a 10-acre site to build it, courtesy of the city of Lawrence.

Commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting will consider crafting an agreement that would donate 10 acres of property near the Kansas Turnpike interchange along McDonald Drive. The property is adjacent to the proposed site for a $28 million police headquarters, and the donation would be contingent upon voters approving a sales tax for the police headquarters on Nov. 4.

“We’re looking to give teens a safe, positive place to go after school,” said Colby Wilson executive director of the Boys & Girls Club. “In the middle schools, you see a lot of students going home after school and doing a lot of unsupervised activity.”

The club currently has a teen center at 1520 Haskell Ave., a former Odd Fellows Lodge building that was converted into Boys & Girls Club space in the 1990s. Wilson said the 7,000 square-foot building is overcrowded with the approximately 75 teens who use the building after school each weekday.

Wilson said a new center could be as large as 30,000 square feet and easily could accommodate 200 students. He said demand for the center would be high. The current facility operates with a waiting list, and he said many fifth-grade students often stop attending Boys & Girls Club in the sixth grade because of space shortages.

“We usually have about 160 fifth-graders in our program, and that drops down to about 30 sixth-graders,” he said.

Wilson said the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club has committed to do a feasibility study on the project, and the results of that study should be completed by late October. A 30,000 square-foot facility could cost about $6 million to build, but Wilson said the size of the facility could be adjusted downward.

“We really are still in the discovery phase of this process,” Wilson said.

But he said getting the city to donate the 10-acre site for the project would be helpful nonetheless. He said part of the feasibility study involves approaching potential major donors. He said the organization would like to say to the potential donors that the city is backing the project.

Tuesday’s commission meeting will be the first major discussion commissioners have had about the idea. But the concept was briefly discussed when commissioners agreed to sign a letter of intent to buy a 47-acre site for the police headquarters. The 10-acre parcel is part of the 47 acres that the city plans to buy from Hallmark Cards, if voters approve the police headquarters project in November.

The city needs only about 15 acres to build the police facility, but Hallmark was interested in selling only the entire 47-acre site. The city has agreed to pay just under $48,000 an acre for the property, making the city’s donation to Boys & Girls Club worth about $500,000.

Wilson said the Boys & Girls Club would seek to build the center through a combination of funding from local donors and grant money. He said the center would not seek city funding for the construction of the building, but would continue to seek annual funding to help the organization meet its operating budget.

As currently envisioned, the center would include a multitude of features for teens, such as:

• A full court gymnasium.

• A dance studio.

• A music studio.

• An art room.

• A teaching kitchen that would be used for cooking classes and a commercial kitchen that would be used to prepare evening meals for teens.

• Two “Power Hour” classrooms that would be used to tutor students and provide other academic assistance.

• A technology room with computers, Internet connections and other technology to help teens.

• A multipurpose room that would include pool tables, video games, lounging areas and dining tables.

• Office space for the administration of the Boys & Girls Club.

Some of the proposed uses for the center do overlap with space that was built at the 181,000 square-foot recreation center at Rock Chalk Park. The center has eight gymnasiums, and 7,000 square feet of vacant space that city commissioners haven’t yet determined a use for after plans for a wellness center fell through.

Wilson said he’s heard questions about why the Boys & Girls Club wouldn’t locate in the center, but he said he’s uncertain the space could accommodate all the different uses the club is seeking. Plus, he said getting to the Rock Chalk center in the far northwest corner of the city would be a 30-minute bus ride for many of the students.

City commissioners will meet at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.