TEMECULA ---- It was a lesson in collaboration and deal-making Thursday as city and area higher-education officials teamed up to showcase their plans for a planned college complex on the northern end of the city.

The project ---- dubbed the Temecula Education Complex ---- is designed to house courses from two universities and one community college.

The heart of the campus will be two 57,000-square-foot buildings of classroom space ---- space that will be leased to Mt. San Jacinto Community College, Cal State San Marcos and UC Riverside. The complex will also include two four-story classroom buildings, a conference center, an amphitheater, a day-care center and a 280-unit apartment complex.

The project promises to be the only complex of its kind in the state, and possibly a model for other facilities, said Joan Sparkman, who is leading the charge to build the complex. She is also the chair of the board of Mt. San Jacinto.

Officials from all three schools said Thursday that their respective institutions are planning to offer a combination of classes at the complex that would allow students to earn not only their two-year degree, but a four-year degree as well. And in the distant future looms the possibility of master's degree programs offered at the site.

The campus development, by Capistrano Beach developer A.G. Kading, is slated for 32 acres that the city owns at the northwest corner of Dendy Street and Diaz Road ---- the same site that has been home to such community shindigs as the Great Temecula Tractor Race and numerous rodeos.

The city bought the land in 1994 for $3.7 million; Temecula Redevelopment Agency Director John Meyer said 50 of the apartments slated in the project will be set aside as "affordable housing."

City officials said Kading is still in search of financing for the project. They are coy about offering possible dates for completion, but Sparkman said she is eyeing an opening of fall 2005 or spring 2006.

It can't come too soon for Mt. San Jacinto. Classroom space in the courses it offers is filled to 90 percent capacity, Richard Giese, president of the college, said Thursday.

It's so full, in fact, he thinks that as early as this spring, the school might have to start turning away students interested in taking the school's Temecula-area classes.

"That's where this facility becomes extremely critical," Giese said.

Build the new complex, Giese said, and MSJC will rent the lion's share of the classroom space ---- and enrollment could increase to more than 11,000 in the school's Temecula classrooms within six years. That number is nearly triple the number of students in MSJC's Temecula classrooms last year.

But without the classroom space this project offers, Giese said, the college will only be able to handle about 5,300 students ---- about 1,300 more than MSJC had in Temecula-area classes last year.

In fact, he said, the interest in taking classes at MSJC is so great that the Temecula Education Complex would come in addition to the full campus MSJC plans to build in Wildomar, where it bought 80 acres earlier this year.

Even though MSJC will offer the most classes at the complex, the master lease-holder will be Cal State San Marcos.

"We have many prospects, but this one looks like it has the most potential," said Steve Garcia, the vice president of finance at Cal State San Marcos.

Jack Azzaretto, dean of UCR's extension and summer classes, said the project will mean the three schools can combine to offer a seamless pathway to a four-year degree.

"That's really a wonderful vision," Azzaretto said. "It's pioneering and it's bold."

UCR boasts an enrollment of between 1,000 to 1,500 people in its Temecula class offerings.

This is the second time a developer has pitched plans to bring higher education to the northwest corner of Temecula. In 2001, a proposal from Arcadia-based developer Tres D's to build an education complex fell through.