UND breaks ground on new softball facility, multiuse apartments

GRAND FORKS — UND broke ground on its Memorial Village II project at a ceremony Tuesday afternoon.

Memorial Village II is the UND Department of Athletics’ latest project, coming on the heels of Memorial Village I, which is wrapping up construction. This second phase of the project will see a new softball facility built that can seat more than 500 spectators as well as more market-rate housing and mixed development built. The goal is to have a playable field by the end of next summer and leaseable apartments by March 2025.

The new softball facility will be named after Dave and Alexa Albrecht, who gifted UND funds to build the facility.

“This will be a beacon to softball at UND, across Grand Forks and across the state,” Dave Albrecht said, adding that it will help promote women's athletics.

The new softball facility will be across Second Avenue North from the Frederick D. Pollard Athletic Center. The apartment building being built as part of phase two is on the west side of the lot and will be connected to the Columbia Road skywalk and parking garage on the west side of Columbia Road.

Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski said it’s remarkable how much Grand Forks has changed since he attended UND.

“Really only one word comes to mind: momentum. Grand Forks is really going places,” Bochenski said. “To see where we are today just fills me up to the brim.”

Albrecht Field, the name for the new softball facility, will not only host UND softball but also high school softball events, particularly Central High School and Red River High School. Members of the UND softball team threw dirt from their soon-to-be old home at Apollo Field to the new home plate to mark the occasion.

This event also occurred 140 years almost to the day since the first cornerstone was laid at UND, according to DeAnna Carlson Zink, CEO of the UND Alumni Association and Foundation.

“This project exemplifies the partnership of public and private (sectors),” Zink said. “This is more than a sports facility, but a source of pride.”

Site work has already commenced, and by next fall, softball games are expected to be played at the site.

Going forward, the Memorial Village I buildings will be known as Memorial Village Hyslop and the Memorial Village II buildings as Memorial Village Field House to commemorate the Hyslop Sports Center, which will be decommissioned next year.