Cytown Update

[CloniesForLife]

I got curious, so here's how many days the ISC is used for events throughout the 2024-2025 season. No clue about the conference schedule, but those should increase dramatically with an on-site hotel.

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

FB

1​

1​

2​

3​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

VB

1​

5​

4​

4​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

BB

0​

0​

1​

7​

5​

9​

6​

3​

0​

0​

0​

0​

Gym

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

4​

2​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

Wrest

0​

0​

0​

2​

0​

2​

2​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

CY/Fischer

1​

3​

6​

8​

4​

6​

8​

8​

5​

1​

0​

0​

I didn't count overlapping athletic events twice (for example BB doubleheaders, so that only counts as 1 day), but it's possible an event at CY Stephens, the Goldfinch Room, or Fischer Theater is a duplicate day. All said and done, current ISC events occur on (at most) 72 days during this span.

Career fairs bring in tons of people from out of town and many are staying or grabbing meals during their time in Ames. Source: me who went and recruited ISU for a couple days and ate at multiple restaurants. Having something that close to Hilton/Scheman will be packed on those days

 

[Freebird]

I feel like on non gamedays it will be more like a Ghost Town instead of CyTown. Hope I’m dead wrong though.

Bare minimum you are going to have the extension of the research park, some residential presence within Cy Town, clinic traffic, and the thousands and thousands of cars down Elwood Dr/Lincoln Way every day.
People act like the only time anyone would eat at a restaurant there will be during events. Is this coming from mostly non-residents that think we just shut the damn town down and roll up the sidewalks whenever you aren't all here for a game? There's 100,000 of us in the Ames metro area. We like to go out to eat too.

 

[NWICY]

Bare minimum you are going to have the extension of the research park, some residential presence within Cy Town, clinic traffic, and the thousands and thousands of cars down Elwood Dr/Lincoln Way every day.
People act like the only time anyone would eat at a restaurant there will be during events. Is this coming from mostly non-residents that think we just shut the damn town down and roll up the sidewalks whenever you aren't all here for a game? There's 100,000 of us in the Ames metro area. We like to go out to eat too.

Do you include Gilbert and Huxley to get 100,000? I didn't realize Ames has grown that much and I come to FB and BB every yr. I knew it had grown North a bunch but never realized how much.

 

[Tailg8er]

I don’t really care what’s in CyTown. It just needs to make money (and definitely not LOSE money).

They should be diversifying businesses in CyTown to limit risk. Commercials real estate and retail are super risky right now and food and bev have very high failure rates.

I’m wondering if they’ve explored a coworking space (WeWork or local company Gravitate) for some of this. Would help increase foot traffic, somewhat reliable revenue, and could be useful for people outside of just Ames

Lost money for who? The university/athletic department isn't paying for any of the development (beyond the infrastructure), doesn't seem to be all that much risk IMO. You want to maximize profit, sure, but I don't think there's even a risk of losing money (at least for ISU).

 

[Messi]

Do you include Gilbert and Huxley to get 100,000? I didn't realize Ames has grown that much and I come to FB and BB every yr. I knew it had grown North a bunch but never realized how much.

guessing the 100k math comes out to

ames - 65k (25k of which are students)
boone - 12000
nevada- 7000
gilbert - 1300
huxley - 4600

 

[FinalFourCy]

People here don't want to hear that... People can't get past their visions of places like Power & Light and Title Town. CyTown was never going to be anything like that. I was all about it at first but after stepping back and really thinking about it, there was never going to be more than maybe 2 food/drink establishments. JP did one of two things. 1.) he made a decision based off of emotion from his connections to KC and Green Bay or 2.) he tricked fans into thinking that this was going to be something similar when he really just wanted it for commercial/office spaces.

It could have worked, it has advantages a lot to RE in the state does not, but if trying to do it from scratch, it has to nearly be done in excess. You can’t dip the toes in and immediately become an attraction.

 

[Freebird]

guessing the 100k math comes out to

ames - 65k (25k of which are students)
boone - 12000
nevada- 7000
gilbert - 1300
huxley - 4600

Census profile: Ames, IA Metro Area

Census data for Ames, IA Metro Area (pop. 125,156), including age, race, sex, income, poverty, marital status, education and more.

censusreporter.org

 

[KennyPratt42]

Am I missing something in regards to Title Town? (I've never been there in person.) But it appears there is a large brewery, a hotel, some outdoor spaces (playground, field, and hill), a couple other restaurants/bars, a medical clinic, and a lot of residential and office space. That seems very similar to what is being proposed here. Title Town and CyTown are both a fair bit different than something like Power & Light.

 

[Freebird]

Am I missing something in regards to Title Town? (I've never been there in person.) But it appears there is a large brewery, a hotel, some outdoor spaces (playground, field, and hill), a couple other restaurants/bars, a medical clinic, and a lot of residential and office space. That seems very similar to what is being proposed here. Title Town and CyTown are both a fair bit different than something like Power & Light.

Nope. I think you are spot on.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Lost money for who? The university/athletic department isn't paying for any of the development (beyond the infrastructure), doesn't seem to be all that much risk IMO. You want to maximize profit, sure, but I don't think there's even a risk of losing money (at least for ISU).

Sorry, I don’t know all the details of the project. Who is running the operations of CyTown?

 

[cyclone87]

guessing the 100k math comes out to

ames - 65k (25k of which are students)
boone - 12000
nevada- 7000
gilbert - 1300
huxley - 4600

Story co (Ames MSA) is 100k, Boone co is another 30k.

 

[Die4Cy]

I mentioned it in the premium Cytown thread, but I'll say it here as well since I haven't seen it brought up. On page 2 of the BOR agenda item, it notes that "The University will have no debt obligation regarding any aspect of the development," yet the buildings will be owned by the university upon completion. It sounds like the AD's entire investment was on the front end with the parking lots and the ground infrastructure.

Seems like a pretty good deal, putting the financial risk on the developer, with the university's financial investment already occurring and coinciding with parking lot improvements that probably needed to happen anyway.

I took that to mean that the developer agrees to build everything turnkey style and the university pays the bill over time when it's completed. On page 4 it indicates the university will pay Goldenrod to cover their debt service, plus a profit for handling it. This operating agreement would probably satisfy the terms of a construction lien.

 

[CycloneNick]

When they remodeled the intramural fields and didn’t make them artificial turf grass and design them to be used for USSSA baseball and softball tournaments they missed out on a gigantic opportunity. The turf facilities around the metro are packed every weekend from April 1 to July 30th with families. Central Iowa Sports would have run the tournaments and the University would have cashed in and CyTown would be busy non-stop.

 

[Joe4Cy]

I’ve never heard of this but I like the idea. I don’t think I’m still considered young and definitely not professional. I guess I’ll just need to observe from a safe distance.

I used to be a regular at Clive After Five and, before that, Senoim Sed. Live music, cold beer, eye candy. What more could you ask for?

 

[Tailg8er]

Sorry, I don’t know all the details of the project. Who is running the operations of CyTown?

What do you mean by operations? I imagine it will be like any other office park where the businesses all pay their share of the common expenses.

 

[MJ271]

I took that to mean that the developer agrees to build everything turnkey style and the university pays the bill over time when it's completed. On page 4 it indicates the university will pay Goldenrod to cover their debt service, plus a profit for handling it. This operating agreement would probably satisfy the terms of a construction lien.

You seem to have a better understanding of these kinds of agreements than I do, so I'll defer. But I took it to mean that Goldenrod will hold the debt, and the agreement is for Iowa State to repay it, assuming Cytown generates the revenue to do so. So yes, of course Goldenrod isn't building anything for free. But the financial risk of pouring a bunch of money for construction is on Goldenrod because if it doesn't make money, they'll be the ones holding the bag.

 

[cykadelic2]

When they remodeled the intramural fields and didn’t make them artificial turf grass and design them to be used for USSSA baseball and softball tournaments they missed out on a gigantic opportunity. The turf facilities around the metro are packed every weekend from April 1 to July 30th with families. Central Iowa Sports would have run the tournaments and the University would have cashed in and CyTown would be busy non-stop.

I was hopeful of a new venue that could house ISU VB/Wrestling matches along with year round use of it for club VB/BB tourneys.

 

[NWICY]

I was hopeful of a new venue that could house ISU VB/Wrestling matches along with year round use of it for club VB/BB tourneys.

For club events don't you need multiple courts like the attack(?) Built over on S.Dakota?

 

[KidSilverhair]

I used to be a regular at Clive After Five and, before that, Senoim Sed. Live music, cold beer, eye candy. What more could you ask for?

 

[Mads4st8]

Des Miones????