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Hot property: Sea Foam Stadium
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Where: Southwest corner, Hamline and Concordia Avenues, St. Paul
Type: Athletic facility
Capacity: 3,000
Cost: $14.5 million
General contractor: Kraus-Anderson Construction Co.
Details: Officials of Concordia University in St. Paul like to point out that TCF Bank Stadium isn't the only college sports stadium under construction in the Twin Cities. And while Sea Foam Stadium may not be in the same league (or NCAA division) as the new home of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, the future lair of the Golden Bears is impressive in its own way.
The new facility is set to provide a major construction project in St. Paul at a time when the city isn't seeing many such large-scale efforts. It is named for Sea Foam Sales Inc., of Eden Prairie; its owners donated $5 million to the Christian private college toward the cost of the $14.5 million facility. The new stadium will boast 3,000 bleacher seats overlooking a state-of-the-art, artificial turf football-soccer field and running track, and a huge inflatable dome to allow year-around use.
The $8 million first phase includes the fields, dome, 2,000 of the bleacher seats and a press box, which the school is looking to complete in time for the fall football season. A second phase, to be completed later, includes a new, three-story building to house locker rooms, weight training facilities and the university's Athletic Department offices, according to Eric Lamott, Concordia's vice president for administration.
He said Sea Foam Stadium is a fitting facility for the Golden Bears athletic program, which 10 years ago gained NCAA Division II status and is a member of the Northern Sun athletic conference, but which never has had true home field.
"We've been fortunate to be very successful in Division II competition, but we didn't have a campus stadium," he said. "We're pretty tiny compared to some athletic scholarship programs in Minnesota, and the new stadium will really help us in recruiting and retaining great athletes. We didn't have the kind of training facilities we're getting now."
LaMott said the domed field, when completed, will be the only such facility in St. Paul and will produce rental revenue for Concordia when the Golden Bears are hibernating. The general contractor on the project is Kraus-Anderson Construction Co., which recently completed a 300-bed apartment-style residence hall at Concordia. DLR Group of Minneapolis is the stadium's architects.
- DON JACOBSON
Don Jacobson, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
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