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| For Immediate Release | Contact: Frances Squire |
| Sept. 16, 2009 | Phone: (559) 934-2134 |
WHCL Multi-Use Sports Complext night rendering
West Hills College Lemoore will hold groundbreaking ceremonies on
Tuesday, Sept. 22nd, at 11 a.m. for a new $20.8 million multi-use sports complex
Construction on a new $20.8 million multi-use sports complex at West Hills College Lemoore will begin with groundbreaking ceremonies on Tuesday, Sept. 22nd, on the college campus at 555 College Avenue in Lemoore.
WHCL President Don Warkentin said the project will include a 55,000 square-foot, two story arena with 2,200 seats in a theatre style arrangement. An additional 1,000 seats can be added to the floor for large gatherings.
Construction on the new building, which will be about twice the size of the existing campus library, should begin will take about 18 months to complete, Warkentin said.
Sacramento-based EMJ Corporation, was the low bidder on the project, and was awarded the construction contract.
In addition to basketball and volleyball games, the center will serve as a home for the college’s popular wrestling program and will provide adaptive physical education facilities for those with special needs. It will also provide classroom space for wellness activities including aerobics classes that are a popular campus offering.
Warkentin said there is a strong teaching component to the state-of-the-art building that has been designed by AP Architects, the college district’s facilities planners.
It will match other campus buildings and will sit southwest of the library. Part of the project will be the extension of Campus Avenue, which runs on the east side of the campus, to Pedersen Drive, which will serve as the southern boundary of the college.
This project is the third major phase of construction for the campus, Warkentin said. The campus opened in January of 2002, with the library, administration building and a classroom building. Later construction included additional classroom buildings and a child development center.
Future plans for the college, which served more than 3,000 students at the end of last semester, call for construction of a student center, a library expansion, two-story classroom buildings and a field sports complex.
The college sits on 107 acres of land that was donated to WHCCD by Mardell and Bob Pedersen and her parents, Lola and Lionel Semas. The Pedersens met while they were both students at West Hills College Coalinga in the 1950s.
More than 12,000 students are expected to attend WHCL when it is fully-built out in 2020, Warkentin said.
West Hills Community College District Board of Trustees members considered the project on three prior occasions. On the first occasion, bids were rejected because they were $4 million higher than anticipated. The bidding process was also delayed several months because of state budget issues, according to Warkentin.
He added that funds for the construction project are separate from the college’s general operating funds and can only be used for construction, which has been in the State Chancellor’s office planning cycle for a number of years.
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West Hills Community College District serves the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and is part of the California Community College System. Its two colleges, West Hills College Coalinga, which includes North District Center, Firebaugh, and West Hills College Lemoore, serve more than 7,000 students on campus and online each semester.