The Iowa Board of Regents authorized the advancement of three new building proposals at the August meeting on Wednesday. Iowa State is moving forward with the Student Innovation Center, Cremation Garden Cemetery and the Advanced Teaching and Research Building.

Student Innovation Center

The proposed $80 million Student Innovation Center would be a student-focused facility to provide a high-quality, centralized space to support a student-driven culture of innovation and include state-of-the-art classrooms with easy access to specialized equipment, materials, and tools, as well as space for computer-aided design and virtual reality facilities, according to the proposal documents.

The board gave Iowa State permission to proceed with project planning, including the design professional selection process, and consideration of the use of an alternative construction delivery method other than the traditional design-bid-build process.

The demolition of the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory and the south portion of the original Sweeney Hall building to provide the site for the new facility was also approved.

“Those are both structures that were constructed in the 1920s, early 1930s, that are very obsolete,” Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Warren Madden said. “Both of these buildings are not air conditioned and are really old space.”

Funding for the project is scheduled to be evenly split [$40 million each] between university and state funding. Madden said fundraising efforts are “moving along very well.” An anonymous donor has pledged $20 million for the center.

Cremation Garden Cemetery

Approval was granted for a five-year agreement with Fans4Ever for the marketing, construction and management of a cremation garden within the Iowa State University Cemetery.

“We’ve had inquiries and a number of alumni and people who have an interest in Iowa State having their final remains placed at the campus,” Madden said.

Madden said the university expects internment spaces to sell for approximately $6,000, but will have to “wait and see” what the market dictates. The initial investment is expected to be around $1 million.

According to the proposal, the university anticipates the ability to accommodate the demand for the next 75 to 100 years. Full burial interments in the cemetery will continue to be limited to retired Iowa State University faculty and staff.

The five-acre Iowa State Cemetery was established in 1876. Around 900 graves or internments are on site. 

ISU Facilities Corporation/Bioscience

The board authorized the creation of an ISU Facilities Corporation to facilitate the development of capital projects, specifically the Biosciences Facilities at Iowa State. 

A financing issued by the ISU Facilities Corporation may be used to help the university acquire, construct and finance certain facilities when cash funds are not available, recommended, or practical, and a “self-liquidating, revenue producing” enterprise is not feasible, the proposal said.

“The Facilities Corporation is a vehicle to provide a mechanism to assist in the financing for other kinds of projects that might happen on the campus,” Madden said.

According to the proposal, Iowa State anticipates in approximately one year it will request Board of Regents approval for the ISU Facilities Corporation to issue approximately $20 million in debt [to be repaid with University resources] to finance a portion of the Advanced Teaching and Research Building. The ATRB is part of the $80 million Biosciences Facilities project that was approved by the Board in June 2015.

The Legislature has provided $50 million in state funds over the next three years for the two components of the Biosciences Facilities project.