MONTREAL — McGill University is mulling a big move — seeking to dramatically expand the footprint of its downtown campus by taking in some or all of the Royal Victoria Hospital complex.

And relatives of the railway barons who bequeathed the land in the 19th century have signalled they won’t stand in the way — provided McGill uses the land for medical research or a similar purpose, in keeping with the original deed.

The sprawling hospital is to be emptied once the new Montreal University Health Centre superhospital in the city’s west end is fully functioning.

“We are looking seriously” at mounting a bid to take over the Vic’s majestic structures — and the land on which they stand, dominating the southern flank of Mount Royal — to give them a teaching and research vocation, Olivier Marcil, vice-principal for communications and external relations, said in a Thursday morning interview.

This would resolve the university’s substantial and growing space deficit, Marcil added.

It also represents, he added, “an opportunity to consolidate the future of McGill University.”

Adding the Royal Vic site to the existing downtown campus with a specific health sciences vocation is “what we have in mind for the moment,” Marcil said.

“It would make sense,” although details — notably financing and the business case — have not been ironed out.

Some of the structures date back to the 1890s.

They would have to be renovated while respecting their architectural character.

The Vic is expected to be completely vacated once its move to the new Glen Yards site for the MUHC is carried out, sometime in 2015.

“One million square feet is going to be empty right across from McGill University; we are directly south and east as well,” Marcil noted.

The original bequest for the land was for its use as a hospital.

“There’s a logic to it — it’s a natural fit for us to maybe one day have the capacity to occupy ... in part or in totality the site of the Royal Victoria,” Marcil said.

“We feel that we can come up with a project that will be very interesting for Montreal’s population, and that they will accept this,” he added, and that McGill would at the same time “preserve the institutional vocation of the site.”

“Financing is the issue,” Marcil said.

“These are very old buildings.

“There’s a lot of work to do for renovations. Transforming a hospital into classrooms, research spaces and other university activities is going to be an important investment, no doubt about that.”

Elspeth Angus, a great grand-niece of George (Lord Mount) Stephen, said she received a call about two weeks ago from a McGill vice-principal who mentioned the university’s interest in acquiring the property, but that’s as much as she knows.

“They said they would get back to us, but that’s like saying I will write pie in the sky.”

Angus said her cousins, as well as descendants of Lord Strathcona, realize the Royal Vic “is not going to be a hospital again” and agree that having McGill take over the part of the Royal Victoria for medical research would be the best solution.