Groton – The University of Connecticut at Avery Point has begun demolishing the former Coast Guard training center and will create a terraced, landscaped green space in its place for students and others to enjoy the campus’ expansive water views.

“It should dramatically open up some of the views into the campus, even off of Shennecossett Road,” said Joseph Madaus, interim campus director.

The cinderblock training center near the center of campus, built in the early 1940s, has been vacant since 2006, Madaus said.

“It was an older building that’s not usable (and) eventually could present a safety concern,” he said.

UConn-Avery Point, with a focus on marine and maritime studies, was once considered a feeder school to the main campus and strictly for commuters, but reported in September that more students were applying to the campus as their first choice and more were living in off-campus housing. The campus had 98 students registered with off-campus housing in 2008, and expected 200 students this year.

Demolition of the 90,000-square-foot former training facility became noticeable in the last two weeks, but the project started in May. Utilities and electrical lines for UConn-Avery Point’s other campus buildings run under the training center and had to be rerouted, said Stephanie Reitz, UConn spokeswoman.

The project was budgeted at $7.3 million, but is expected to come in under budget at closer to $6 million or $6.5 million, Reitz said.

The training center is labeled as two buildings, but it functioned as one. It formed a three-story square with a courtyard and walk-out basement along one section due to the slope of the land, said Mitch Cropley, project manager with general contractor All-Phase Enterprises Inc.

The company handling demolition spent about two weeks removing light fixtures, asbestos tile and asbestos pipe wrapping to prepare the building to be razed, said Andy Bowolick, site supervisor for the subcontractor Bestech Inc., an environmental and demolition services company. Then workers began dismantling the building using excavators to chop up the concrete and steel.

Cropley said the contractor hopes to have demolition done by January so the area can be cleaned and landscaped in the spring of 2016 and finished by summer.

“We’re hoping that it becomes a gathering point for students,” Reitz said.

UConn-Avery Point is also in the midst of classroom renovations in its academic building, Madaus said. One classroom is closed while technology is upgraded and will be finished in the spring, he said. A biology lab in the academic building will also be updated over the winter break, he said. Classrooms in the Marine Science Building are also on a regular schedule for upgrades, he said.

The campus opened a new $9 million student center in 2013.

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim