Iowa State unveils plan for entertainment complex between football and basketball venues

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard unveiled a master plan Tuesday for a 94-acre development between the schools’ football stadium and basketball arena.

The development between Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum will be called CyTown and is scheduled to open in fall 2027.

Announced in 2022, the entertainment complex will be open to the general public year-round and the hub of activity on football game days. Construction cost is estimated at $175-225 million, with the master developer, Goldenrod Companies of Omaha, Nebraska, arranging financing. ISU will have no debt obligation.

The McFarland Clinic medical facility will be the anchor tenant. Also planned is a seven-story, 200-room Marriott hotel called The Cardinal that will be attached by skywalk to Hilton Coliseum, 70,000 square feet of retail space and 90,000 square feet of office space as well as a 3,000-seat amphitheater and restaurants.

Groundbreaking for the McFarland Clinic is scheduled for this spring, with most of the construction set for 2026.

Pollard said the site had become outdated and presented a host of maintenance issues over the years. Former ISU president James Hilton in 1954 first proposed construction of an educational, cultural and athletic complex in the area.

“This is a big moment in time for Iowa State,” Pollard said in a video. “This is going to be a major attraction not only for the university but also for the city of Ames and for central Iowa because it's taking an idea James Hilton had in the 1950s, which was so revolutionary and was so forward-thinking, and bringing it back to life.”

CyTown is envisioned to be similar to Titletown near Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, and the Power & Light District near the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

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