Georgetown’s Board of Directors approved funding Thursday to complete designs and road and utility realignment for a new business school building.

The announcement is a large step in a process that began in 1998 when Robert McDonough (SFS ’49) donated $30 million to the business school.

“This is the first step towards a new building for the cDonough School of Business,” university spokeswoman Laura Cavender said.

Cavender said the university would begin work in December of this year to realign West Road and relocate underground utilities in the Lot T area.

Officials met their initial fundraising goal of $62 million for a new business school building in early September. But the university must raise an additional $20.5 million by September 2005 in order for construction to begin, Cavender said. If all goes as planned, construction will begin by this time next year.

The new building, which is part of the university’s mid-campus project, will house classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, community space and high-tech audio visual technology.

The mid-campus project will include a multi-sport athletic facility on Harbin Field as well as a new science center on Lot T.

The board approved nearly $1.4 million to design Phase One of the sports facility, which will include a new subsurface and synthetic playing field that can be used for football, soccer and lacrosse.

The board’s proposal said that construction would not begin on the facility until the necessary funds have been raised to complete the project.