By JENNIFER ROBACK
News Editor
On Wednesday September 25, 2019, LIU and partnered construction company RXR had a Groundbreaking Ceremony, where LIU President Kimberly Cline and RXR officials presented a model and spoke about the future plans of the LIU athletic field.
One of the main concerns branching from the LIU student-athletes last year was that Cline was getting rid of our athletic field completely. Cline said that we will “absolutely” have a field and described the plans for a new athletic complex, which can consist of many different sports.
There are no set sports so far that will specifically be apart of this new complex, however, over the next couple years, LIU will be sending out surveys requesting students input on sports they should add to the Brooklyn campus.
“We’re going to continue to see over the next 5-8 years that we are going to be putting a lot of money not only back to refurbishing but also new buildings on campus,” Cline said.
One of the big things that is set to be apart of this project is a new athletic complex for student-athletes. According to Cline, the new complex will have, “more locker rooms, more offices for the coaches, more wellness facilities for students and athletes, and there will also be another weight room.”
The plans also consist of a 30-story apartment complex. While the apartments will be owned by RXR and have no connection to the University, there will be a parking garage with over 300 spots available to both residents of the apartment complex as well as LIU students and faculty.
No specific date has been given on when these plans will be finished. Construction for the apartment complex has already begun and continues to progress as the days pass. LIU sent out an email informing the students that there will be overnight construction beginning on Friday October 18th, at 10 pm through Saturday October 19th. The email advises students that there will be the normal construction noise throughout the night.
