Same destination, same arrival time, different route.

A key state vote needed for Millersville University's takeover of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music building won't be secured today, as initially expected.

However, the university still intends to occupy the downtown landmark in July, to ready it for use for the fall semester, said Millersville's Roger Bruszewski.

"We're 99.999 percent confident it will go through and we won't have any problems. It's just a matter of going through the process," he said.

Bruszewski, vice president of finance and administration, indicated Wednesday that the university's plan still calls for the state to buy the building on behalf of Millersville.

But the complicated steps needed for the state to allocate funding for the venture and to negotiate a sales agreement will take longer to complete than first thought.

Instead of buying the building in the coming weeks, the state intends to add an interim step.

It wants to sign a lease-purchase agreement on the 42 N. Prince St. property.

That would let the university get into the building on schedule under the lease provision while the state goes through the many time-consuming steps needed to purchase it.

PAM opened the lavish building two years ago at a cost of $32 million, then quickly ran into financial trouble.

Ultimately, PAM gave the deed to its mortgage lender, Union National Community Bank, in lieu of foreclosure.

PAM, with 310 students and more than 30 faculty, remains in the 63,000-square-foot building as a tenant.

However, Union National has told PAM it needs to leave by May 25, in anticipation of finalizing a deal with Millersville.

Millersville intends to use the building for its visual and performing arts.

This would give Millersville a permanent center-city facility for the first time in its 155-year history while ending uncertainty about the fate of a key downtown building.

The state would spend up to $14.5 million to buy, renovate and furnish the structure for Millersville.

Most of that money would come from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Millersville officials had thought the state system's board of governors could recommend approval of that funding as soon as today's meeting.

That would send the matter to Gov. Ed Rendell for a final decision.

However, the state system can consider funding for a project only if it's part of a capital-projects bill passed by the state General Assembly.

That has yet to happen.

The state system and state Sen. Lloyd Smucker, whose district includes Lancaster city and Millersville borough, are working to add the project to a capital-projects bill now in the Senate, said Bruszewski.

If the General Assembly, state system and Rendell all support the project, then the state Department of General Services will try to reach a deal with the bank.

Assuming the lease-purchase agreement comes to pass, Millersville expects to use the building, four miles from campus, as replacement space for Lyte Auditorium while it undergoes a two-year renovation and expansion.

Beyond that, Millersville sees the building as a way to take its arts program to the broader Lancaster community and to collaborate with area arts and education organizations.

Whether those collaborators include the academy remains to be seen.

Echoing what university officials said last month, Bruszewski reiterated that the university is open to discussing the possibility of the academy renting the building in some fashion.

"They're working very hard to put together a business plan," he said.

"We're willing to sit down and talk to them when they're ready to talk to us about what they believe their needs are long-term. We'll be all ears."

tmekeel@lnpnews.com