Information obtained through an Open Records Request reveals that Georgia State has purchased roughly three-quarters of land for a proposal to construct new intramural fields at the corner of Irwin and Fort Streets near the University Commons. They are tentatively scheduled to open within the next two years.
The buy occurred in February 2012 from Wheat Street Gardens, LLC for over $2.5 million.
The property at Irwin and Fort Streets is unofficially being referred to as Georgia State Recreational Fields at Wheat Street by the university’s Facilities Management Services.
It has entered into the planning and design phase, after a long wrangle over purchasing more land for the project.
Services were looking to purchase the entire lot from that company, but Wheat Street Gardens was unwilling to sell the remainder of the property according to Facilities Management Services.
After long-held negotiations, Facilities Management Services decided to go ahead with the project with the property that had been already been acquired according to Associate Vice President of Facilities Management Services Ramesh Vakamudi.
Vakamudi said they are now holding preliminary meetings regarding the use of the property, and will begin the selection process for a designer in early 2015.
The project has been delayed not only by the ongoing real estate negotiations, but once the property was purchased, existing construction on the property had to be razed.
Extensive soil, as well as other samples, were taken to determine possible development plans for the site, according to Georgia State’s Legal Affairs Office.
It was discovered that the site had an significantly steep slope, which would need to be corrected if level fields were to be built. Georgia State looked into constructing a retainer wall, but found that the cost would have been prohibitive, according to Vakamudi.
It was decided Recreation Services and Facilities Management Services that the fields would instead be elevated, which would allow for parking and storage under the fields.
The fields themselves will take the lead of the Georgia State Football practice fields located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Currently, the plan is to have two fields, which will both be elevated, and will be capable of hosting all of the current intramural sports offered by Recreation Services.
The fields will also be secured by a perimeter chain link fence that Facilities Management said will provide a “controlled access” to the fields.
Currently, the tentative schedule will see the fields be open for use at the earliest beginning of the fall semester of 2016. The projected schedule shows that once a designer is selected early next year, the actual plans for the facility should take somewhere between four and six months to complete.
Once the plans are finalized, the university will begin the bidding process for construction firms, and once selected, it should take about a year from breaking ground to the facility’s opening.
The opportunity for having on-campus recreational fields and facilities is one that Vice President Vakamudi is very excited for.
“Most major universities, to my knowledge, have on-campus intramural fields. They will be a big advantage to our students. They will be used more heavily, and be more popular to student groups,” Vakamudi said.
While the fields are still a very long way away from construction, let alone the Wheat Street Intramural Fields opening, progress is being made on the project slowly but surely.
Program meetings to determine the exact uses of the property will be made available beginning late this month.
One of the uses of the property may be for student activitie rental, similar to the Indian Creek Lodge, according to Vakamudi.
