After roughly 20 years of discussion and speculation, Manhattan Christian College broke ground on its new on-campus activity center.
The center will serve as the home for Thunder athletics, as well as a home for intramural athletics and use as an event space.
The center is a part of the three-part Next Generation campaign that MCC launched in 2015, which highlighted construction of the center as one of three primary goals in the campaign.
Construction of the center is the largest expenditure of the program, with construction costs estimated at $3.6 million.
“We’ve never had a building project this large,” MCC president Kevin Ingram said. “Never had a financial goal to raise of 3.6 million like we had.”
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Ingram told a crowd of a few hundred that 98% of the initial goal of $3 million has been raised. If the $3 million mark is reached by April 12, 2017, the Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Oklahoma will provide the final $600,000 in the form of a challenge grant.
MCC Athletic Director and men’s basketball coach Shawn Condra was excited that such a long-awaited project was finally coming to fruition.
“I was hired here in 1994, and I think maybe a couple years after that, they started talking about what we may have a chance to build,” Condra said.
Condra doubted whether the project would even happen.
“I wasn’t sure if it was even going to happen, just because it was such a big project,” Condra said.
The center’s construction will help eliminate the need for Manhattan Christian College to rent out city facilities for practices and games.
The expected date of completion has not been announced.
