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GREENSBORO — UNCG officials are considering the Weaver Foundation property downtown as a possible site for the university’s proposed pharmacy school.

Preliminary plans also call for the 4.3-acre plot next to the Greensboro Children’s Museum to include a new building for Senior Resources of Guilford and possible student housing to serve the pharmacy school.

In 2006 , the foundation purchased the land at the corner of Church Street and Friendly Avenue from Duke Energy for $1 million and earmarked it for future community development.

“We’ve been holding it to see what that might be,” Skip Moore , the foundation’s president, said Friday . “The discussions have evolved to these potential occupants .... There are a lot of details to be worked out.”

Last year, the foundation committed a portion of the land to the Greensboro Rotary Club for a $2 million carousel project the service organization wants to give to the city.

Moore said the necessary land would be donated to the various occupants.

“That would become part of our philanthropic support for the community,” he said. “The question has been finding the projects that would leverage the vitality of the center city.”

Community leaders like that the property could attract a mix of senior adults, college students and families who want their children to ride the carousel.

Even so, a UNCG official said the university is considering several downtown parcels and buildings, adding that no decision has been made.

“We don’t even have final approval for the (pharmacy) program yet,” said Reade Taylor , vice chancellor for business affairs . “ ... It would be difficult to buy a building and turn it into a pharmacy school. If we could build from the ground up, it would be more cost-effective.”

In February, UNCG asked the UNC General Administration for permission to plan for a pharmacy school, but there is no assurance the request will be granted.

General Administration is now setting priorities for new degree programs with the understanding that state funding cuts could have an impact on the process.

It typically takes one to two years for a new doctoral program to be planned and then earn approval from the UNC Board of Governors.

UNCG would like to offer its first pharmacy courses in the fall of 2011 with 90 full-time students.

In addition to the new school, the foundation property also could become the new home for the Greensboro offices of Senior Resources, which used to be known as United Services for Older Adults .

Programs include Mobile Meals and Foster Grandparents .

The nonprofit, which has outgrown its current site at 301 W. Washington St., would continue to operate an office in High Point .

“It’s perfect for us and the older adults in the community,” Ellen Whitlock , the agency’s executive director , said of the Weaver site. “We are excited about the synergy that can be created with the organizations that are already in that (area).”

Those include the Greensboro Public Library, the Greensboro Historical Museum and the Greensboro Children’s Museum .

Whitlock said Senior Resources’ Greensboro office currently has only 12,000 square feet of space.

A new facility would more than double that.

UNCG officials don’t know how much space they will require; nor could they say how much a pharmacy school building might cost.

Moore could not say how many buildings might be erected on the site or when they might go up.

“This is a long way from fruition,” said Moore, a member of the UNCG board of trustees. “(But) it’s a very serious effort. It is not pie in the sky. This is an important move that would affect this university in an important way.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com