PORTLAND – Decades-old plans finally are getting off the ground as construction of a 44,000-square-foot ocean research laboratory and education center on the city’s waterfront begins Monday.

Organizers hope the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, a $14 million, three-story facility at the former Naval Reserve Pier on Commercial Street, will become nationally known for cold-water marine research.

The laboratory will conduct fishery ecosystem research in the Gulf of Maine, bringing fishermen and scientists together to identify and address aquatic resource conflicts.

It also will serve as an educational resource for kindergarten through high school students and teachers, offering interactive digital programs on marine science. The institute plans to invite every fifth- or sixth-grade class in Maine to the lab each year, free of charge.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and author Linda Greenlaw were among the speakers at a groundbreaking ceremony for the research lab on Saturday.

“This is going to be an educational facility not only for children, but for the entire state of Maine,” said Greenlaw, who has written two books about commercial fishing since being depicted in “The Perfect Storm.”

Donald Perkins, president of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, said, “North of Cape Cod, there is no research institution strategically focused on the Gulf of Maine. … Our niche is we know the scientific community well, and we know the fishing community well.”

The lab is scheduled to open in January 2005, and construction on a marine biotechnology wing is slated to begin the same year.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, formerly known as the Gulf of Maine Aquarium, is still working to purchase a 2.2-acre part of the pier owned by the Coast Guard. Perkins said the property is scheduled to be transferred by Nov. 25.

The institute intends to use that land as expansion space for the research and education facility. It also would like to get a zoning change that would allow for the construction of an aquarium, but for now those plans are on the back burner.

“We have developed a conceptual design for the Gulf of Maine Aquarium, which will evolve as we respond to Maine’s marine research and education needs,” Perkins said. “We are keenly sensitive to the fact that we will need to earn community and City Council support for zoning changes that would be required to proceed with an aquarium.”

Aquarium advocates have been seeking such a zoning change for more than 30 years.