Iowa State's CyTown is a going to be a revenue engine, and the pro forma is starting to show it. The university is projecting $184M in net revenue over 30 years, with about half coming from a revenue-share with developer Goldenrod and roughly 30% from a tax arrangement with the City of Ames that routes a share of the district's property tax payments back to the university.
The Regents approved leases for six of eight buildings in December, so tenant deals are moving now.
40 acres and more than 500,000 square feet between Jack Trice and Hilton, anchored by a clinic, a 215-key hotel, an amphitheater, office, retail, and food and beverage. Goldenrod and McFarland are investing around $185M, the university already put in $30M, and Iowa State holds the land and carries no debt on the buildings. Q3 2027 occupancy.
The suites show how many revenue lines stack up. 60 units, each one a $50K commitment fee, a $450K donation to the ISU Foundation, and $25K to $30K a year in operations over ten years, which is roughly $27M in donations from one product line before the hotel and commercial tenants are even counted.
And $184M may be the floor. Every tenant in the district will spend continuously on construction, facilities, food service, insurance, and procurement, which is a large recurring pool of B2B dollars. The schools that turn their tenant base into a commercial network, where that spend flows back to the institution, are the ones that take projects like this well past the base case. CyTown gives Iowa State the platform to do it.
Excited to see how this progresses.