Nearly a decade-long process of negotiations was brought to a close Tuesday when University President Michael Adams and administrators broke ground on the Greek Park on River Road.

“There is no place like home,” said Rodney Bennett, vice president for Student Affairs.

Though this line is best known as a pop culture reference from the movie “Wizard of Oz,” it can hold true meaning for men and women in the Greek community and can symbolize what it means to be a member of a fraternity or sorority.

The park will include houses for four fraternities that were relocated from Lumpkin Street to make way for new academic buildings.

The fraternities will be given a 30-year lease with the option to renew for 30 more years. The houses will have live-in facility managers and will be supervised by the Greek Life office, Bennett said.

“I think that this is an exciting day in the history of the University,” Adams said.

Phi Delta Theta, Pi Kappa Alpha and Tau Epsilon Phi and Sigma Nu – which was previously located on River Road – will move into 10- or 20-bedroom houses that they will lease from the University.

Completion of the Greek Park project is expected in the fall of 2009, according to a University fact sheet.

The process of moving the fraternity houses included many rounds of negotiations between the University and the fraternities for the past eight years.

“The groundbreaking today represents a culmination of decades of time and energy, sweat and tears, debate and discussion and ultimately, negotiation and compromise,” Bennett said.

The University of Georgia Real Estate foundation will finance the $12 million construction of the houses and associated site work.

The University then will lease the houses and own them at the end of the 30-year lease, said Eric Orbock, president of the Real Estate Foundation.

“Those of you both young and old, real estate negotiation can be complex … and they are at some times tedious,” Adams said. “In these cases we had the added element of the proud and deserved traditions regarding their history at the University.”