The planned Center for Sports Performance will not be paid for with the $35 million bond issue made possible in November, when voters in a nine-county area approved the extension of the college’s borrowing authority.

But college President Jesse Ulrich said completing the new center will be an essential step, clearing the way for some of the projects that will be paid for with the bond issue.

“That is the first domino that has to move,” he said.

On Tuesday, the college’s Board of Trustees hired Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, to build that center at a maximum cost of $13.9 million.

Ulrich said the company was hired on a “construction manager at risk” contract. He said that means the college will pay no more than $13.9 million. Any cost overruns would have to be absorbed by the company.

“We’re protecting the college,” Ulrich said.

He added that Jensen Builders Ltd. has done a “wonderful job” of completing Iowa Central construction projects on time and under budget.

Money from housing fees students pay to live on campus will be the primary source of financing for the project. Ulrich said the college will borrow money via a revenue bond and then pay off the debt with campus housing fees. There will also be a fundraising campaign.

The Center for Sports Performance will be a 25,000-square-foot, two-story building at the south end of the campus, near the practice field.

It will house the locker room and coaches’ offices for the football team. It will also house classroom space for sports medicine, pre-physical therapy and athletic training. There will be rooms for academic advising for athletes. A 200-seat auditorium will also be in the building.

Ulrich said he hopes that ground for the building will be broken this fall. Construction will take a year to 18 months, he said.

Currently, the Triton football program occupies the basement of the Applied Science and Technology Building. The bond issue plan submitted to the voters calls for extensive renovations to that building to create more space for multiple programs, including the dental hygiene and dental assistant programs. But Ulrich said none of that can happen while the football team is occupying space in the building.

“I have to get football out of there,” he said. “I can’t do anything with that AST building while football is in the basement.”