The completion date for the CyTown development between Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum in Ames has moved back. Iowa State University general counsel Mike Norton gave an update to the Board of Regents.
“We had suggested that we’d be done fourth quarter ’27, it’s probably slipped into ’28 now. So we’re a little bit behind where we were before,” he says. Norton says there is some positive news on that front. “We were thinking that the hotel would be significantly behind the rest of the development construction. I think it’s that is tightening up where the hotel and the rest of the construction will be closer together in time in completion,” Norton says.
Norton says some of the delay has been in reworking the contract with developer Goldenrod so the University will handle the construction of the amphitheater. He says they have raised contributions of 12 million dollars for what is expected to be an 18 million cost for the amphitheater.
An update projection show ISU will make 172 million dollars of net revenue from overall operations over 30 years with a 90 percent occupancy rate. That is down from the 184 million initial revenue projection due to construction cost increases. They have a revenue guarantee with the developer and Norton says they’ve looked at the worst case scenario for occupancy.
“So at 50% occupancy over 30 years, basically the revenue becomes zero…the net revenue becomes zero, but all the costs are still accounted for and paid. So even at 50% occupancy, there’d be no risk of the revenue guarantee coming into play against the University,” he says. Norton says they’ve believe that worst case scenario is highly unlikely. “We have a lot of confidence in our ability to maintain a much higher level of occupancy than that dire kind of prediction or worst case scenario,” he says.
The ground breaking for CyTown is set for September 2nd and Norton expects to have more concrete timelines on the project progress then.
