AMES — Iowa State broke ground Thursday on the remaining portion of CyTown, moving the $175 million to $225 million entertainment district closer to becoming a new destination for visitors, events and entertainment in Ames.
The groundbreaking marks the start of construction on the remainder of the district surrounding the Iowa State Center.
The McFarland Clinic portion is already underway, and completion of the entire project is scheduled for August 2028, marking 10 years of CyTown development and construction.
Plans include a seven-story, 200-room Marriott hotel called The Cardinal, along with restaurants, retail and gathering spaces designed to bring activity to the area beyond Iowa State athletic events.
Iowa State President David Cook said CyTown is intended to serve more than athletics.
“We’re adding an entertainment district to our campus,” Cook said. “Obviously, it’s going to support athletics, but you heard it. It’s supporting everything in arts and culture events that we’re going to have throughout what we see as Iowa State Center here.”
The development could also strengthen the Iowa State Center’s ability to attract conventions and conferences.
The Scheman Building already provides space for conventions and meetings, but the area has lacked nearby lodging and a variety of places for visitors to eat and gather. The Cardinal and CyTown’s planned restaurants could help fill those gaps.
Cook said attracting more visitors to campus could have an impact throughout Ames.
“Bringing more people onto campus, bringing more people to Ames, has a huge economic impact on our community,” Cook said.
Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard also pushed back on viewing CyTown solely as an athletics development.
“It got [branded] too much as an athletics project, and it’s not,” Pollard said. “It’s a university project.”
CyTown’s progress comes as Ames considers another project aimed at attracting visitors and events.
Discover Ames has proposed a $25 million Ames Event Center and initially hoped to fund the project before donating the completed facility to the city. Discover Ames has since asked the Ames City Council to provide $12.5 million toward construction.
The two developments have raised questions about whether the proposed event center and CyTown could compete for some of the same convention and event business.
Ames City Council Ward Two Representative Tim Gartin believes Ames has room for both.
“Oh, absolutely,” Gartin said. “I mean, there are people that have been studying these numbers, feasibility studies, for a long time, and so I’m very optimistic that both can happen.”
Gartin said the city and university have had “a tremendous number of conversations” as CyTown has moved forward.
He credited Ames City Manager Steve Schainker with spending “literally countless hours” working through infrastructure and tax issues involving the development.
“So credit needs to be given to Steve Schainker for his role in this,” Gartin said. “He’s the one who did the heavy lifting.”
With construction moving forward, CyTown could make the Iowa State Center more competitive for conventions while the proposed Ames Event Center seeks to attract events of its own.
Whether the two ultimately compete for the same business or help Ames attract more visitors remains to be seen, but Gartin remains optimistic they can coexist.