Pollard should call up Hy-Vee and get some kind of concept store in the new development. They'll greenlight any idea.
Facilities and financial update from Jamie Pollard
- Thread starter JP4CY
- Start date
I think that people need to have a holistic view of the whole thing. First off, tailgating is the golden goose for ISU. It's what keeps people coming to games win or lose. So what do you do to make tailgating more of an event than it already is? You add amenities. RVs getting power hookups and the ped bridge are a start. Then you give people without prime spots a reason to come. A restaurant and bar district would do that. A hotel with parking garage makes it easier for people to show up and stay.
Second, when you look at Ames, it's a mess as far as commercial. No one goes to Campustown because you can't park there and it's so student focused. Main St is kind of a jumbled area. Duff is a bunch of chain restaurants with horrible traffic. Somerset is out of the way. I think if you have a couple of decent restaurants and bars with easy access and parking, it will do OK all year round, not just during ISU events. Something like Toppling Goliath would be a huge win.
Third, with the AD taking over Scheman, CY and Fisher, you have more events that will draw people in. Having a hotel and some bars and restaurants increases the likelihood of getting concerts and conferences. And conferences are huge money makers. At a time when TV revenue for the AD is up in the air at the very least, another revenue stream is huge.
Finally, I'm just not too concerned about the floodplain. The biggest flood we've ever seen never even got into JTS. It flooded Hilton because Hilton is at a lower elevation. If you build anything in those lots up a few feet, there's just not much of a chance that water will ever get to it with the mitigation work that's been done downstream.
Second, when you look at Ames, it's a mess as far as commercial. No one goes to Campustown because you can't park there and it's so student focused. Main St is kind of a jumbled area. Duff is a bunch of chain restaurants with horrible traffic. Somerset is out of the way. I think if you have a couple of decent restaurants and bars with easy access and parking, it will do OK all year round, not just during ISU events. Something like Toppling Goliath would be a huge win.
Third, with the AD taking over Scheman, CY and Fisher, you have more events that will draw people in. Having a hotel and some bars and restaurants increases the likelihood of getting concerts and conferences. And conferences are huge money makers. At a time when TV revenue for the AD is up in the air at the very least, another revenue stream is huge.
Finally, I'm just not too concerned about the floodplain. The biggest flood we've ever seen never even got into JTS. It flooded Hilton because Hilton is at a lower elevation. If you build anything in those lots up a few feet, there's just not much of a chance that water will ever get to it with the mitigation work that's been done downstream.
I am leaning to the negative side of a retail development partnership between Ames and ISU being successful. All business leaders in any metro are going to eye undeveloped sites that have foot traffic with fast beating hearts. Show me the numbers and I will change my mind but I don't think students have the cash flow to spend consistently year round at bars and restaurants, I fear the numbers the consultants are using are based on young single employed folks that frequent those establishments and I doubt Ames has that kind of employment base. If JP is looking at the P & L District in KC as a comp that is another totally different scenario. If this comes to pass, I suspect the area SE of Trice where students like to party/tailgate will get paved for donor parking and the area E of Trice that will be served by the new elevated walk way will also get paved for donor parking.
The major reason Hilton got inundated up to the lower bowl was the berm under the loading ramp down into the building got washed away, kinda like a dam failure under a road. Hopefully they have corrected that with proper engineering. They also have flood gates at Scheman and Hilton Westend street entrance. Hilton had survived one flood prior to that with minimal damage, water came in through sewer pipes running through the berm (service for the locker rooms and floor drains on the main floor, the west end entrance was sandbagged for that flood. (Had 1" of water on main floor) but pumps were able to keep up with those sewer pipe backflow. Locker rooms had to be refurbished. But the millions of damage occurred when the back ramp gave way in the second big flood
Yeah I totally agree, this is going to ruin tailgating.
(1) Who said students and young singles are the target demo?
(2) Why would the student lots get paved?
(3) The area served by the new bridge is already donor parking (RVs).
I'm no developer but seems the success to any retail area is traffic- both consistency and volume. I don't think any retail business could rely on football/basketball game day traffic to be successful.
Wonder if they are considering construction of student apartments and higher end apartments/condos for working folks.
Wonder if they are considering construction of student apartments and higher end apartments/condos for working folks.
Mattressfirm and O'reilleys. Get a quart of oil and new windshield wipers on game day
Opposing FB teams aren't going to stay there. Football coaches like to be far away from the stadium they are playing at.
When playing at Iowa we stay in Cedar Rapids
When playing KU we stay in KC
Opponents for ISU usually stay at the WDM Marriot
Hyvee will have a place there. Film the wedding there. Great pub for us.
You boys wanna come play big boy football? You know the big12. Play against central Floridas. BYU? Ya they won a title when your parents were babies. Houston? Yer damn right we got our own strip mall in a flood zone to compete with Houston. We are recruiting that city. Come to our Buffalo Wild Wings next to the stadium most of the tvs work. Get your mom a le crusent oven pad from William somina. Get your girl friend a Biuld a bear in a isu sweater.
Isu 2035 is gonna rock
Isu 2035 is gonna rock
I thought opposing teams stayed in Ankeny, at one of the places off Oralabor? I'm not sure where I got that idea.
I don't think it will ruin tailgating. There's still plenty of parking for that. But I can imagine a subset of people getting priced out of the parking lots that remain, and/or deciding to skip the hassle of tailgating and just eat and drink at this new place then walk into the game. Seems like an opportunity to arrange for a lot of off-site parking with shuttles bringing people into the new district.
"I'm John Walter's, bringing you the Cyclone Tailgate Show live from the NEW Iowa State Entertainment District, sponsored by Ace-In-The-Hole Sump Pumps. When you gotta pump it and dump it, make sure you have an Ace-In-The-Hole!"
