ST. CLOUD --

Today I am very pleased to tell you that in about a year you will be standing in a new academic building.

A big announcement Friday on the site of the future home of St. Cloud Cathedral's newest building. Cathedral Board Chair Father Tom Knobloch announcing to students and staff that construction is scheduled to begin this summer.

Bishop Donald Kettler told the crowd raising the $16.5 million for the project was a big job.

I always kept in mind something I read in the bible about how you don't want to build something unless you can complete it, and so I was always concerned if we would be able to handle such an expensive project and do it to completion.  Well, we're here today to tell that it is going to happen.

They actually still have some fundraising to do, but they are over 90 percent toward their goal, with another $1.4 million to raise.  Over 1,000 people donated to the Capital Campaign.

Photo by WJON.com's Jim Maurice
Photo by WJON.com's Jim Maurice
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Superintendent of Catholic Community Schools Lynn Grewing says the building should be ready for students in the fall of 2020. She says it will have three primary areas of study.

State of the art classrooms, our science classrooms are at least 50 years old. There will also be bigger art classrooms and technology.

The building will also house the administration offices and a new chapel.  The building will become the primary entrance to the Cathedral campus on 7th Avenue North and will have views of the Mississippi River from a community room and outdoor patio facing 6th Avenue North.

This is the first new construction on the Cathedral campus in over 50 years.

The new academic building will be built where the parking lot is now between the gym building and the 1938 building.

Preliminary construction will start in July and will be finished in time for the start of the 2020 school year.  An official groundbreaking date has been set for Sunday, August 11th after Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral.

The Campaign for Cathedral is also seeking an additional $1.5 million for the eight elementary schools within the St. Cloud Catholic Community Schools system.

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