Suffolk University’s planned opening in early September of its new state-of-the-art classroom building at 20 Somerset St. in Boston will unofficially mark the end of an era for the school on Beacon Hill.

The new 110,000-square-foot facility, tucked between the university’s Sawyer Building on Ashburton Place and the John Adams Courthouse across the street, will contain science and general classrooms, laboratories, student lounges, a dining hall and other amenities. The complex cost a total of $62 million, including land, construction, furniture and equipment.

By itself, the new 10-story building is a major achievement for Suffolk, as it tries to recover from recent enrollment and financial difficulties and adjusts to the arrival of a newly appointed president, Margaret McKenna, formerly of Lesley University.

The 20 Somerset building, which is located at the site of the former Metropolitan District Commission headquarters, will allow Suffolk to consolidate many of its current operations into one gleaming new facility.  It also has a state-owned, outdoor plaza on the north side that was refurbished by Suffolk.

But Suffolk largely paid for 20 Somerset by selling off three older buildings closer to the Statehouse and near residential portions of Beacon Hill, where neighbors once regularly clashed with the university over the flood of sometimes rowdy undergraduate students living and attending classes in the area.

Last month, Suffolk sold off its old Archer and Donahue buildings, totaling 175,000 square feet of space on Derne and Temple streets, for a $43.5 million, to an affiliate of Center Court Partners of New York.

Though Center Court’s definitive plans for the two interconnected buildings remain unclear, most assume the company will push for a residential redevelopment. A spokesman for Center Court couldn’t be reached for comment.

Center Court was the recent joint-buyer of the old Millennium Partners sales building at 171 Tremont St. overlooking Boston Common. Center Court and Swiss developer Maurice Dabbah have proposed a new 31-unit luxury condo tower at the site.

Frank Petz, head of JLL’s capital sales team in Boston, helped Suffolk market the Archer and Donahue buildings for potential office, hotel, institutional or residential uses. Petz would only say that Center Court appears to have a lot of faith in Boston’s residential market, based on its push for new condos on Tremont Street.

Last year, Suffolk University also sold off its Fenton Building, at 28-32 Derne St., for $15 million. The new owners are developers tied to Atlas Investment Group of Boston and Brookline Development Corp. in Brookline. The developers have applied for building permits to redevelop the 47,000-square-foot Fenton Building into 14 residential apartments, with an underground parking garage and a new addition at the seventh floor, according to city filings.

With the sale of the Archer, Donahue and Fenton buildings, Suffolk has largely departed from what’s considered the residential portion of Beacon Hill, though it still owns the Ridgeway Building at 148 Cambridge St., a commercial block on the north side of the neighborhood. The Ridgeway Building houses Suffolk’s student book store and a small gym.

“Our core strategy has been to move off of residential Beacon Hill – and we’ve done that,” said John Nucci, senior vice president of external affairs at Suffolk. “We’ve clearly moved our center of strategy away from Beacon Hill.”

In the meantime, the school’s center of gravity has been moving toward the Downtown Crossing area, where it now has its law school, dorms, administrative offices and other operations.

That move sits well with residential owners and renters on Beacon Hill.

“It’s something that’s been planned for a while now,” said John Achatz, a board member and co-chair of the planning and research committee at the Beacon Hill Civic Association. “We used to have our share of difficulties (with Suffolk undergraduate students), but Suffolk has stepped up to the plate and really done a good job.”

Achatz said many Beacon Hill residents are hoping that Center Court Partners, the new owner of the Archer and Donahue properties, will build new residential units at the former site of university offices and classrooms. Ideally, people would like to see more housing for seniors and for families, but residential properties in general would be welcome, he said.

He said the Archer and Donahue sites present a “wonderful opportunity” to increase housing on Beacon Hill.