Thomas College in Waterville aims to break ground on a state-of-the-art athletic facility later this year, with plans to open by early fall 2022, the private college said.
The facility will be funded in part by the college’s recent “Guarantee the Future” campaign, which raised a record $30 million. That campaign gained momentum from a $13.5 million Harold Alfond Foundation gift.
Thomas College also raised $662,000 in its annual Day of Giving on Wednesday — “an incredible feat for a little college like ours,” President Laurie Lachance told Mainebiz on Thursday.
The Terriers’ new athletic center, to be designed by Portland-based SMRT Architects and Engineers, will be an 18,000-square-foot facility overlooking the Bernatchez and Smith fields at the Kennebec Savings Turf Field Complex.
No details on the cost of the construction project, or the contractor that may be involved, were immediately available.
Thomas College said the facility will create a hub and home for its athletics program and include strength and conditioning and athletic training space, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, an e-sports arena and viewing area.
The new structure will also mean that the school’s existing Harold Alfond Athletic Center can be better used by the entire campus community.
“This facility has been part of a phased, strategic, campus master plan,” Lachance said in Wednesday’s news release.
“As Thomas College has grown, so too have our athletic programs, which include 40% of our student population. Plus, we have a large and growing varsity e-sports program, including more than 45 students this academic year. Building a home for these programs is critically important to the student experience.”
Thomas College Athletic Director Christopher Parsons added, “This state-of-the-art facility will allow our Terriers to compete at the highest level and help attract high-performing student-athletes to our programs.”
Thomas offers a career-focused curriculum that includes accelerated degree programs designed to get students into the workforce rapidly. Lachance is a 2015 Mainebiz Next List honoree.
