$44 million will give the Golden Eagles a new nest

SUNY Brockport Eagles will be flying high when 2011 rolls around.

This is all because of the $44 million recreational facility that will be going up. Although not due until 2011, the project is already 30 percent designed according to the President’s Executive Assistant Kathy Groves.

Groves said that the 150,00-square-foot facility would feature a six-lane running track, a raised three-lane jogging track, other space for classrooms, meeting rooms and concession space. The new facility will also have two weight rooms.

The college is researching the advantages of having either two fully equipped workout rooms or one room for weights and one room for exercise equipment, Groves said.

The facility will also have the capability to run many more outside programs. Now instead of being confined to tight spaces in the Tuttle North Ice Arena, the college will be able to seat more people when they host music artists in the new college facility that is going to be the biggest between all of Rochester and Buffalo.

The facility will be located west of Tuttle North. “The area to the south side will connect the two buildings so that you will be able to go from one to the next,” Groves said.

Students will be happy to know that tuition isn’t going up due to the cost of the facility.

“This money was separately provided to us by the state,” Groves said.

The college is looking for donations, however, and this will play a factor in what the facility’s actual name will be. Groves, who serves as one of the tri-chairs on the planning of this facility, also stated that the idea for the facility had been floating around a couple of years prior to 2007, and funding was one of the main hold-ups, she said.

Although most current students will be gone, Groves said, they are using the new space to lure prospective students, just like they did with the Town Homes that went up this past fall.