An ambitious plan to refurbish a Lower Hill District trade school building into a center for green innovation inched closer to fruition yesterday with a $2.5 million boost in loans and state money.

The $2 million state grant will be used to outfit the former Connelley school near Mellon Arena with alternative energy technologies as educators, elected officials, business people, union leaders and environmental activists seek to transform the building into a hub for all things green.

A $493,810 low-interest loan to Pittsburgh Gateways Corp. will help pay for the installation of a geothermal system, wind turbine and windmill at the 234,000-square-foot facility. The corporation is a business incubator with a green focus.

A host of planners, including the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne and Penn State universities, are collaborating on the center, which they would call Pittsburgh Green Innovators.

The goal is to create a facility to develop new technology and train workers for the environmental industry.

"It's meant to be a green home for the city," said Bernie Lynch, a consultant to the project, still in its formative stages. "For anything you ever wanted to know about sustainability, you would go there."

Planners want the building itself to be a "teaching tool," she said, a "show-and-tell" of energy-efficient insulation and environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems. It would also be a home for companies that offer green products and services, a place, for example, where researchers would help businesses develop or use alternative fuel.

"You couldn't ask for a more ideal building," said state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park. He and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, have been key champions of the proposal.

Planners say the first phase of the project could cost $16 million. A more ambitious plan could cost as much as $65 million, Ms. Lynch said, and would incorporate the nearby Letsche school building.

Planners have been seeking money from a variety of public and private sources.

She described yesterday's funding boost as a step in a long process to get the center afloat. Pittsburgh Public Schools still owns Connelley, which it used as a center for career, technical and adult education. The school board voted in May to try to negotiate the sale of the former Connelley and Letsche buildings to Pittsburgh Gateways; they have as long as a year to do so. Both schools were closed in 2004.

The district has not said whether it wants to be part of the green innovation center, though planners envision its involvement.

Other tenants might include labor unions, whose members could be trained in maintaining green buildings.

"It's meant to be an area where convergence happens between sectors of society," Ms. Lynch said. "It's a green home for anyone who wants to hang a shingle there."