Someone should sponsor an annual design competition for a better campustown for the next 5 years. Imagine a FilmScene, some live music, Welch being closed to traffic Sat-Sun with food trucks, a rooftop pub with a retractable roof, a minimall for startup businesses, a good used bookstore, a 24/7 deli, intentionally affordable retail rent…
Campustown Redevelopment
- Thread starter Havs
- Start date
Agree.
A buddy got married on a Friday in Ames in November, and a bunch of us stayed in Ames through Sunday. Spent the day watching the game at WAS, went to Cafe B and then Mickeys and Cys, and it was DEAD. It was really disheartening.
I will add that when I worked there in college it was pretty nice to have the office right across the street from campus.
There was a proposal to basically completely demo the block with copy works/MoJazz back in the early 2000s, they were going to revamp everything and pay the city a ton of money for other projects. It got killed because people bitched there wouldn’t be enough parking.
I went to Iowa State from 2000-2005 and campustown was fun but it was an absolute crap hole even then.
People can talk about urban blight in Detroit all they want but Campustown Ames is a depressing dump and has been for decades. Leadership in Ames should honestly be ashamed of themselves.
This is why like it or not I am in support for CyTown, you can’t wait on Campustown to get their crap together, they seem like they are auditioning for a film location for The Last of Us season 3.
Are there any future plans to revitalize campus town? I understand they are college bars, but the buildings were a dump 20 years ago. I can't imagine what they are like now.
Glad to hear they weren't worth saving at least. I think in an ideal world that lot would have been split into at least two lots. I just think the mega building that Kingland built is too big, just a big long wall of building that blocks the sun and doesn't necessarily vibe with the rest of campustown. But I get economy of scale and all that. Oh well.
There was also an effort by the city of Ames to buy out the block for like $80 million back around 2010 that involved some discussion of eminent domain that blew it up then too.
CyTown will (I think) cater to a different crowd than campustown, but I think that's why campustown is kind of a dump, they only need to cater to "poor" college students who don't care about bathroom stalls not having doors or silly things like health codes. The AD should open a bar on welch for additional funds lol. Have players make appearances on the weekends, I can't see anything going wrong with that.
Ames has too many "central business districts". Campus shoulda been built next to downtown Ames, or vice versa I don't know which one came first TBH. One unified downtown would have been ideal. CyTown will just take traffic away from downtown Ames unfortuneately.
Drove thru there yesterday. I graduated in 91. It’s a desolate crap hole now. Could raze about 12 square blocks and really make it something. But noooo…
Don't you dare knock Lumpys.
I love how every few months this thread get bumps and it turns into a “remember when” thread
That prior owner sold in early 2020 to the company behind the Brothers Bar and Grill chain. Covid paused things but it was still reportedly in the works for awhile, but the last I can see is as of 2023 it was still "on hold due to costs" though they still hold the land.
The added cost/liability of building over the easement for college creek probably didn't help the project either.
This may be hard to believe, but campustown was a ******** when each of you were in college, too. You just didn't care because you were in college and mug night was a steal. Lumpy's always smelled like piss, but I still went there. (this post is as much to myself as it is to everyone here)
What if I told you that your CVS was a popular bar with live music 10-15 years before that.
Of course Lumpys smelled like piss because we all pissed under the stairs.
Guessing at what your **** are, but to that I agree. But, it was ****, with a lot more going on. However, a lot of the "more going on", were businesses that struggle in today's world (movie theater and music store come to mind right away, I'm sure there are more examples)
Well said.
If only I could time travel and tell my younger self while at Lumpy's - "Hey bud, that is piss/sewage from Peoples dripping from above..."
Such a bummer to drive back through Campustown and see how much of a sh*tbox it still is.
I had a project I was a part of that involved going into the basements of the buildings in Campustown. One particular place was mentioning the only businesses that can survive in Campustown either own the building or are bars or tattoo shops because the rent is so high.
What if I told you that CVS location was a p*rn theater in early '80s? . . . . so I have been told.What if I told you that your CVS was a popular bar with live music 10-15 years before that.
