PROVIDENCE — Brown University and Johnson & Wales University are asking the General Assembly to give them first claim on nearly six acres of prime downtown real estate that will become available when the relocation of Route 195 is complete.

House Majority Whip Peter F. Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, has submitted legislation on behalf of the universities that would authorize the state Department of Transportation to sell them the land. The deal would bypass the public bidding process typical of state land sales.

But Mayor David N. Cicilline, who has been a strong advocate for developing a knowledge-based economy in the Jewelry District, says he is against the universities’ proposal if they do not properly compensate the city.

The university’s joint effort comes as the state and city are still working on an overall plan for the 19 acres that cut through the middle of the city. Freeing up the land will present a once-in-a-generation opportunity for economic development.

Johnson & Wales wants to build two dormitories and a hospitality college on two parcels on Friendship Street, totaling 1.75 acres, adjacent to its downtown campus.

Brown wants to build research facilities on about four acres on Richmond Street to complement the laboratories it currently operates in buildings on Richmond and Ship streets. The university also plans to locate the Warren Alpert Medical School in an office building just a block down on Richmond Street.

The universities are offering fair market value for the land, to be determined, if their proposal is approved. They say their plans to expand into the Jewelry District –– now a mix of office buildings, nightclubs and bars –– are essential to a broadly shared vision to transform the area into a center for biotech and information technology industries. They say they hope to model Providence after Cambridge, Baltimore and Philadelphia, other cities that have successfully attracted businesses to locate around major hospitals and universities.

The $610-million relocation of Route 195, known as the Iway project, is moving the highway south, out of the downtown core to ease traffic.

Cicilline says that the General Assembly should first pass legislation his administration developed that would allow municipalities to collect up to 25 percent of the value of taxes that nonprofit universities and hospitals otherwise would have paid. Cicilline is also pushing a bill that would assess a $300 annual fee on out-of-state students attending private universities.

“The larger issue at hand is that we as a community must resolve the issue of private universities and colleges paying their fair share to their host community,” the mayor said. “Any conveyance of this I-195 land to these two tax-exempt institutions will limit the city’s ability to generate local tax dollars that are badly needed to support essential services.”

An amended version of Kilmartin’s bill includes language that would require the universities to pay the city an unspecified amount of yearly compensation for the land, but Cicilline said Thursday he has not had a chance to review it.

Both universities have long eyed the land, which won’t be ready for development for two more years.

“The idea is to give us the capacity to do things we don’t have the capacity for now,” said Richard Spies, Brown’s vice president for planning. “That means partnering with Johnson & Wales, the hospitals and major corporations ... The possibilities are endless.”

Spies said that by committing to the two universities now, the state stands a greater chance of sustaining investor interest in the remaining parcels, which the universities say they are not interested in at this point.

“This allows other private investors to make plans knowing that at least two anchor tenants are in place,” he said. “It gives the state and the city the best overall chance of success by getting us as quickly as possible to critical mass.”

Governor Carcieri agrees with the anchor tenant argument, according to spokeswomen Amy Kempe, as long as the land is sold at fair market value.

Carcieri’s administration and the city have been working jointly to draw up a marketing and development plan for the land available from the Route 195 relocation. A draft has been completed but has not been made public.

Fred Hashway, the state Economic Development Corporation’s director of government affairs, said that completion of the report should not hold up the universities’ plans.

“We fully support this proposal,” he said. “It is the right thing to do to support jobs. It clearly links Brown and Lifespan and extends the Johnson & Wales campus. It will create a new, dynamic downtown, and that is very exciting.”

Lifespan, a partnership of five hospitals, already has a major presence in the district.

State lawmakers, however, have some concerns.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, whose committee held a hearing on the bill Wednesday, said he would like to see “performance standards” incorporated in the bill so that lawmakers would have some idea of the number of jobs and economic activity that the sale would bring.

He also questioned why the committee, which will take up Kilmartin’s bill again Tuesday, has not seen the draft plan for the Route 195 land. Companion legislation was held for further study by the state Senate’s housing and municipal government committee in May.

pmarcelo@projo.com