Michigan State is moving forward with a 14-acre mixed-use development project that will be anchored by a $150 million, 6,000-seat Olympic sports arena. The university’s board of trustees gave the project a green light during its meeting Friday. MSU will develop the project in a public-private partnership (P3) with local firm Gillespie Group and Goldenrod Cos., a Nebraska-based developer that’s leading Iowa State’s CyTown project.
The arena will house women’s volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics and will also host concerts, community events, Michigan high school playoffs and championships and other campus activities. The development in the southwest corner of MSU’s Lansing campus will also include a hotel, market-rate housing, retail, restaurants, office space, parking and a future academic and/or health care development. The project resembles at least one other effort: George Mason’s effort to develop the western portion of its campus, in putting mixed-use development around Olympic sport athletic facilities. And it’s also reminiscent of what Kansas is doing with its Gateway District, creating a new front door for the university’s campus.
The first phase of the Michigan State project includes the arena, hotel and parking structures, with the arena planned to be operational by late 2027 and the hotel and parking would be ready by mid-2028. The second phase -- housing, office and retail -- would be operational by 2030, while the third phase, the future MSU academic or health care facility, is still TBD.
MSU is entering into a long-term ground lease with the Gillespie and Goldenrod joint venture. The developers will finance the commercial projects (hotel, market rate housing, retail and office and parking) while the arena will be financed by MSU bonds, with funding from the arena’s ticket sales and rental fees, philanthropy and sponsorship and university general funds. During the same meeting Friday, the board also approved the issuance of bonds totaling a maximum of $362 million (plus the amount necessary to refund existing debt) to pay for the arena and other cap-ex projects.
Gillespie and Goldenrod’s JV was chosen from three bids that responded to an RFP in late 2024. Goldenrod was founded in 2005 by Zach Weigert, who was captain of Nebraska’s 1994 National Championship team. Its plans with Iowa State for the 94-acre CyTown were unveiled earlier this year, including the detail that Goldenrod is arranging financing for the $175 million to $225 million project, a demonstration of the value that universities see in these partnerships -- the private partner taking on a hefty chunk, if not all, of the financial risk.
