CGCC to build $24.5 million athletic center

A $24.5 million athletic center is planned for Chandler-Gilbert Community College's Pecos campus.

The 57,000-square-foot Coyote Athletic Center will have a 2,000 to 2,500 fixed-seat arena, and will be used for a variety of events, ranging from athletics, classes, student orientations, graduations and career fairs to community events and guest speakers, said Trish Niemann, spokeswoman for the school at Pecos and Gilbert roads in Chandler.

It's the largest center of its kind in the Maricopa County Community College District, and with all of the facility's multiuse functions, Chandler-Gilbert will "finally be a true comprehensive community college," said Linda Lujan, CGCC's interim president.

The college's largest facility now seats 299 students. Since the college has more than 16,000 students a year, it has to rent space off campus to hold larger events.

"When we have speakers come, we're limited," Niemann said. "This kind of facility will better allow us to have community speakers. It's going to be such a nice facility and allow us to do so much more of those types of things."

The facility will also have a gymnasium, locker rooms, storage facilities and a Sports Performance Center for strength and conditioning classes and activities.

"We don't even have locker rooms now at the college," Lujan said. "We have athletes who are changing in their cars."

Chandler Chamber of Commerce President Jerry Bustamante said the center will "significantly increase our footprint here in the southeast Valley to have that kind of investment in the community college."

Construction of the facility will create new jobs, and the center "will certainly create a much-needed economic boost for the community," Bustamante said.

"It's something we should all be looking forward to," Bustamante said. "It's a great location."

The exact location on campus of the Coyote Athletic Center has not been decided. Two potential sites have been identified, including near the northwest corner of Gilbert and Pecos roads, where the college just acquired 10 acres, Niemann said.

The MCCCD governing board conceptually approved the center on July 28. The college will now go out to bid in the next two weeks for an architect to design the facility, Niemann said.

The architect will also advise college officials as to the best location for the center on the college campus, Lujan said.

The athletic center, which is named after the college's mascot, will be funded from bonds approved by voters in November 2004, Niemann said.

A groundbreaking is anticipated in late fall 2010.