Cadets Break Ground on Student Activity Center

broke ground Tuesday on an $18 million student activities center that will feature basketball courts, a locker room, wrestling room, music rooms, classrooms and fine arts classrooms.

This will be the first expansion of the upper school since St. Thomas Academy moved to Mendota Heights 47 years ago.

The facility will be connected to the southeast wall of the school, creating a mall between the new building and the football stadium. An additional parking lot exit across from the ice arena entrance will be also be added on Mendota Heights Road. 

"The Student Activities Center was designed to be a multipurpose building; it will benefit all Academy students on a daily basis," said Dr. Thomas Mich, Headmaster of Saint Thomas Academy.

Fundraising for the project through the school's "Defining Moments" campaign has taken several years, due to the downturn in the economy. But now the school's Business Director Robley Evans says the school has raised about $6.35 million in cash and $6.35 million in pledges. 

Those funds will be used to complete the exterior of the building, the aetreum and the basketball courts.

The school is looking to raise an additional $3 million cash and $3 million in pledges to complete the project.The school expects the rest of the funds to be raised after potential donors see the project materializing.

While plans for the new building have been taking shape, the school has been using an inflatable dome with permission from the city to accomodate some of the extracurriculars when weatther allows.

Mendota Heights City Council got the opportunity to weigh in on the project at their last meeting, when they approved the school's request for conduit financing. 

"Speaking on behalf of the council, we're glad that St. Thomas is investing in their campus, and it sounds like it will be a wonderful educational facility," said Mayor Sandra Krebsbach.

Construction of the first phase is expected to start in June and be finished by the start of the 2013 school year, but if the final push of fundraising happens by the start of 2013, the building could be completely in its entirety. 

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