The Iowa Soccer Development Foundation has submitted its final application for state funding to the Iowa Economic Development Authority, hoping to secure $23.5 million under the Iowa Reinvestment Act for the proposed Pro Iowa Stadium and Global Plaza.

Dan Jansen, the nonprofit foundation’s program manager, said Monday that he hopes that submitting the final application sends a signal to the community that the project is moving forward.

The foundation submitted its preliminary application for the $95 million project in 2021. The final application includes updates to account for changing economic conditions and minor changes to design to keep the project within budget, Jansen said.

“As time goes on, pricing on any development changes because of increased costs or inflation, and unfortunately in our process we had COVID, and we know that affected a lot of initiatives or developments,” he said. “We’ve been very careful to right-size the initiative to align with the original application amount.”

The final application also indicates a funding gap of about $19.85 million, which is higher than was originally projected, Jansen said.

“This has been a five-year project in the making, and some of the funding we would have assumed at the beginning may not have come to fruition, so that has something to do with it,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic and increased costs of goods and services associated with the projects also were factors in the increased funding gap, Jansen said.

“We hope to find those monies elsewhere with our private fundraising efforts, and we feel this [the application submission] is a really good step in showing the public that this initiative is moving forward,” he said.

While some changes have been made because of the economy since the project was first announced in 2019, “we’re not really implicating any changes in the overall development,” Jansen said.

The foundation worked to keep costs within the overall $95 million budget.

“We’ve tried to maintain that even with rising costs,” Jansen said. “We’re always in the process of identifying where costs are coming from and to right-size those to align with what our original valuation of the project is. We don’t want to create something that is not viable, so we’ve been very conscious of that.”

The project still includes about 6,300 seats in the stadium, Jansen said.

There are also requirements of the United Soccer League as organizers look to bring a franchise to Des Moines.

“We want to ensure that operationally it’s a sustainable facility, so we keep both of those things in mind, and we feel like we’ve done that in the preliminary and in this final application,” Jansen said.

The application will become public once it’s accepted and reviewed by the IEDA, Jansen said. He anticipates that process could take several weeks.

According to a news release announcing the application submission, the IEDA, the Polk County Board of Supervisors, the city of Des Moines, the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Krause Group have been key stakeholders in moving the project forward.

Another business, American Equity Life Insurance Co., has contributed $5 million toward the project.

“We are proud to support the Pro Iowa Stadium and Global Plaza project,” said Jeffrey Lorenzen, CEO of American Equity Investment Life Holding Co., in the release. “By investing in this transformative project, we are helping to create opportunities and enhance the quality of life in Des Moines, reflecting our commitment to empowering people and fulfilling their needs and aspirations.”

Krause Group, through its development arm, Krause+, has proposed building an outdoor stadium on a 43-acre site at 200 S.W. 16th St. The site, which was contaminated by manufacturer Dico Inc., has sat unused for more than 25 years.

Kyle Krause, CEO of Krause Group, proposed development of the stadium before the start of the pandemic. Krause and his wife, Sharon, have committed $23 million to the stadium project, which will be owned by the nonprofit Iowa Soccer Development Foundation. Private financing will also be used.

Jansen said the next steps are receiving approval from the IEDA and finalizing site plans with the city of Des Moines.

County supervisors must also vote on the county’s contribution, and private fundraising will continue.

“We hope to see some activity on the Dico site, getting the site ready for development or some preliminary work the city of Des Moines will need to do in order to prepare the site, sometime in the spring,” Jansen said.

He said setting a firm timeline on a Superfund site is more tenuous than setting a timeline on a site that doesn’t have any issues.

“We have a projected timeline of what our rollout will look like, but we’ll know a lot more as work with the city of Des Moines and the EPA unfolds,” Jansen said.

According to the release, the stadium and plaza will host a variety of sporting and cultural events, making Des Moines a “premier destination for sports and entertainment.”

“The Pro Iowa Stadium and Global Plaza project represents a transformative opportunity for Des Moines,” Matt Anderson, deputy city manager for the city of Des Moines, said in the release. “We are thrilled to support an initiative that not only revitalizes a historically significant site but also brings immense cultural and economic value to our community. This development will serve as a cornerstone for future growth and vibrancy downtown, and we are eager to see it come to life.”

Even with uncertainty over a timeline and funding, Jansen said he’s optimistic about the project’s future.

“I feel very optimistic that we will find funding or ways to ensure that we can keep moving forward,” he said.

Editor’s Note: This version corrects the number of seats planned in the proposed stadium to 6,300.

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