Cayuga Community College (CCC) is inching closer to leasing Auburn, NY‘s Falcon Park for athletics, as its board of trustees has approved a lease agreement.
Already used by the Auburn Doubledays (Short Season A; NY-Penn League), Falcon Park could also become the home venue of multiple CCC athletic programs, including baseball and men’s and women’s soccer. Under the agreement, the city will install a synthetic field turf surface as part of changes to the facility. CCC, meanwhile, would enter into a 20-year lease with the city, paying about $6 million over the duration of the agreement.
Leading up to Wednesday’s vote by the Cayuga Community College Board of Trustees, CCC officials touted the viability of the proposal. More from The Auburn Citizen:
Before the board members casted their vote, college President Brian Durant stressed that the college has done “more than our due diligence” when it came to exploring opportunities to build or rent athletic facilities on and off campus.
“Ultimately we want to be able to provide our students and our faculty and staff the modern facilities they deserve and be able to have the best experience possible,” Durant said. “We’ve been able to do something creative here with the city to leverage such a tremendous asset in Falcon Park.”
Last year, the college commissioned a study to determine the feasibility of building a 150,000-square-foot multi-use turf athletic complex on campus. The whole project, including reconstructing the parking lot and walkways, building a clubhouse, pressbox and field, was estimated to cost nearly $15 million. Just the turf field would have been around $4.5 million, according to a copy of the study conducted by Appel Osborne Landscape Architecture and SWBR Architects.
After the meeting, Durant said he was pleased with the contract the city and college were able to negotiate, as well as the construction bids the city received for the project.
The agreement is awaiting the approval of the Auburn City Council, which is expected to conduct its vote on October 11.
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