Nearly 1,000 reservists and Guard members from southern Maine may be based at Brunswick Naval Air Station instead of their traditional armories.

A proposal before the Pentagon calls for a new $42 million Armed Forces Reserve Center at the Navy base. The 209,000-square-foot complex with classrooms, offices and meeting spaces would be the first center of its kind in Maine.

“We got involved because we have aging armories,” said Gen. John Libby, who commands the Maine National Guard. “And it makes good fiscal sense.”

The plan would consolidate units from several 1950s-era armories in Westbrook, Portland and South Portland under one roof. And it would be on the federal government’s dime.

The reason is a drive within the Pentagon to create “joint use” facilities, crossing the once impenetrable lines between the Army, Navy and Air Force. And it would be done on federal land.

Were the center to be built anywhere else, the state would be responsible for paying 25 percent of the cost. This way, Washington is responsible for the whole bill, both for the construction and maintenance of the property.

“This could relieve the burden on state government,” Libby said. Meanwhile, the state could sell the armories, using the proceeds to pay for college tuition for a few guard members or other costs.

The joint center concept has been developing for about a year.

Ideally, the Guard hoped to locate somewhere closer to the Portland-area armories it would replace, said Donovan Lajoie, director of facilities engineering for the Maine Army National Guard.

There was no available Portland-area federal land. However, Brunswick was close enough, had available property, and would accentuate the joint-use role.

The change would not affect Guard members who are on active duty. For those doing their one-weekend-per-month duty, it would mean serving the time in Brunswick.

It’s a proposal that Capt. Robert Winneg, commanding officer of the Brunswick base, took up the Navy chain of command. The Navy has since given its preliminary approval.

“We’ve got the green light,” Winneg said Wednesday.

If the project gets funded, the complex would be built not far from the base’s main gate, adjacent to a group of Seabees: Mobile Construction Battalion 27.

It would be a reasonable location, particularly since the units from Stroudwater Avenue in Westbrook and Stevens Avenue in Portland are part of the 133rd Engineer Battalion.

Currently deployed to Iraq, the 133rd does many of the same kinds of duties that Seabees do.

Both Libby and Winneg hope the groups might train together and learn from each other. As people from the 133rd have certainly learned, much of the military’s work in a war zone is cooperative.

In addition, the proposal calls for the Maine Air National Guard station in South Portland and the Marine Corps Reserve unit in Topsham to move to the new complex.

If built as proposed, the center would be almost as large as Auburn’s Wal-Mart Supercenter. Its placement within the base – behind a perimeter of fences and guards – would make it safer than any armory in Maine

The funds to pay for the center will likely be part of the 2007 or 2008 National Guard budget requests, Lajoie said. However, the project could be expedited with enough congressional pressure. Maine’s delegation is working to get the project into an earlier budget.

The concept is also being used by base supporters as another justification for its survival. Brunswick is under increasing scrutiny as the next round of base closures looms.

It’s an issue that Winneg is prohibited from talking about. Not so for Libby.

“I think it makes the base stronger,” he said. “That’s good for Maine.”