Adelphi Breaks Ground on $20M Residence Hall

Adelphi University is expanding ... again.

On Dec. 1, the university officially began constructing its seventh residence hall  - a $20 million "171-bed en suite bathroom hall" - on the western end of its Garden City campus. The dorm will feature "environmentally sensitive" design and its heating and cooling systems will be powered using geothermal technology.

The building will be located between New and Eddy Halls, which will add to the residential section of campus near the baseball field. The project, which was delayed due to "tightness in the credit market," is slated for a June 1, 2011 completion.

As a result of this latest expansion project, the university's softball field has become a construction staging area for crews and will not be available to the Adelphi women's Division II softball team for its 2010 and 2011 seasons, which run from March 1 through May 30 and Aug. 1 through Oct. 31 each year.

With more than a dozen softball/baseball fields within the village's jurisdiction, Adelphi turned to Garden City for help, entering into two separate agreements with the village - an "Offer of Donation of Improvements to Community Park Field #1" and a license agreement to use Field 1 for season play.

Field 1 is located behind the Maintenance Building at Community Park.  

Adelphi is responsible for its complete renovation, including making the field NCAA-compliant for girls fast pitch softball. Adelphi officials estimate this will cost nearly $100,000 to achieve. Improvements include the addition of a 6 foot outfield fence and a new backstop, scoreboard, PA system and batting cage.

The license agreement grants Adelphi a "semi-exclusive" license during the 2010 and 2011 softball seasons to use the field. As per the agreement, Adelphi will pay the Village of Garden City $5,000 in rent per year, according to Kevin Ocker, chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Cultural and Recreational Affairs.

"Being the good neighbor that we are, Adelphi University is in a situation now since they've begun construction of their new dormitory," Mayor Robert Rothschild said. "They asked us if they could spend some of their money fixing up one of our fields. We've come to a license agreement to allow them to use one of our fields during their girls' NCAA season and hopefully into the playoffs."

As per the license agreement, the field will only be available for Garden City community use when it is not being used by Adelphi, according to Kali Chan, media relations director with Adelphi's Office of Public Affairs.

"Overall, this is a great gift/improvement to a village facility that provides a lasting enhancement to Community Park," Ocker said.

Seems like a win for the Adelphi Panthers. The 2007 East Coast Conference champs get the chance to compete during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, and, according to Chan, the university plans on building a new, state-of-the-art field once construction of the residence hall is completed.

Likewise, the Village of Garden City not only makes an easy $10,000 in sought-after revenue but also ends up with a completely renovated field that the Garden City sports community can benefit from in the future.

But how does this effect village organizations like the Garden City Athletic Association (GCAA) whose teams regularly plays on Field 1? According to Ocker, he has received a copy of the GCAA baseball schedule for 2010 and has "analyzed it closely."

"We are fortunate that we have many baseball fields (14 without Field 1) within the jurisdiction of the village, not counting school district fields that we do not maintain or control the use of," Ocker said. "It appears that we can redirect all of the games previously played on Field 1 to other fields within the village."

Village and school officials will also begin talks to "encourage" permit use of district fields to support village intramural play. 

Further, Ocker intends to meet with representatives of the GCAA within the next two weeks to finalize the association's 2010 baseball season schedule. Ocker notes that the schedule will include use of the two baseball fields at Stratford School that village personnel renovated last year for use on week days.

(Editor's Note: The Garden City Recreation Department controls 14 softball/baseball fields within the village and issues permits for two more fields at Stratford School. There are also two fields each at Garden City High School and Garden City Middle School.)