The Iowa Board of Regents has a packed agenda planned for their next meeting. Topics ranging from budgets to new property will be discussed.

The Board will meet on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7 in Des Moines.

Agenda items relating to Iowa State will mostly be discussed on Feb. 6.

The Feb. 6 meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and adjourn at 4:30 p.m. with a lunch break from 12 to 12:45 p.m.

Iowa State’s presence on the agenda is sparse for this particular meeting because of the University of Iowa’s many topics, such as their Health and Hospitals and Clinics report, a new equipment purchase, a requested name change in a Business program and an update on the flood recovery.

“Although the agenda items aren’t specific to Iowa State, the information is represented in some of the governance reports. They will include some data from ISU too,” said Sheila Koppin, the Board’s communications director. “As far as things specific to Iowa State this time, it’s very light.”

Iowa State’s main point of interest will be proposing a new property purchase.

Two properties are in request: 250 Hyland Ave. in Ames, from the estate of Virgil Clifford Dice at a price of $148,000; and a property located at 2121 State Ave. in Story Country from John Wiley and Sons at a price of $950,000.

The first of the properties, Hyland Avenue, is on the west side of campus and contains a three-unit apartment building on a 5,000 square foot area.

The university is looking at the Hyland Avenue purchase to be a new building site to help accommodate the increase in enrollment and the growth of the design and engineering programs.

Property number two, a much larger space located at 2121 State Ave., covers roughly 3.75 acres of land including an 8,953 square foot office building and an 18,200 square foot warehouse.

This area is actually surrounded by Iowa State-owned land. 

These buildings were once the site of the ISU Press, but were sold to Blackwell Publishing in 2000 when a decision was made to end a university-based press.

The property was then taken over by John Wiley and Sons and has been listed for sale since 2008.

Since Iowa State has a significant shortage in office and warehouse space and already owns all of the surrounding area west of State Avenue, Wiley and Sons is offering to sell the property at $950,000, which is around 70 percent of its original asking price.

Both buildings are in decent condition and Iowa State sees this purchase as an opportunity to monitor ISU agricultural research plots.

The office building will house the offices of the ISU Research Foundation, which are presently situated at the Lab of Mechanics. 

The College of Engineering or the College of Design would then take over this space for future program growth.

“I think this is part of the overall plan to help consolidate some of our development efforts. It would be a great opportunity for us,” said Lisa Lorenzen, executive director of the Research Foundation.

The warehouse space is intended for any future need.

Iowa State’s senior vice president for business and finance, Warren Madden, will present the plan to the board during late morning or early afternoon, tentatively based on the BOR agenda.

“The goal of both of these purchases is to increase space that can be used to accommodate growth in campus programs,” Madden said.

The board will then vote to approve or reject the proposal. 

Budgets and parking revenues are on the Board’s agenda, including a resolution for the sale and issuance of $25 million for parking system revenue bonds.

An update on the legislature will be given to discuss where certain bills are in different committees.

The focus on Feb. 7 will be selecting University of Northern Iowa’s 10th president.

There are three candidates and each will be introduced and interviewed separately. This should take up the entire schedule from 9 a.m. and adjourn approximately at 3:30 p.m. with the official announcement of the new president to follow.

Anyone can listen in on the live feed of the meeting at http://www.regents.iowa.gov/.