AMES, Iowa — As the Iowa State Cyclones take the field for their annual spring game Saturday fans will be returning to Jack Trice Stadium for the first time since crews broke ground on the university’s CYTown development.

The $200 million project is still in its infancy stages. The only work being done right now is on a parking lot next to what will become CYTown. The lot is located between Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum just west of University Boulevard on the east side of tent row.

Chris Jorgensen, a senior associate athletic director at Iowa State, said crews are putting in some of the basic infrastructure for CYTown. That means sewage piping that has to go underground before they can start building the actual development.

The development itself will go where tent row is right now between Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum. Once completed it’ll be a mixed-used development with retail, restaurants, and office space.

Jorgensen said the area will be active year-round. Currently, it’s typically only used for parking on non-game days.

“CYTown will be right along the gateway to campus,” he said. “It’s right along University Boulevard where most people enter Ames and Iowa State University. So it’s going to be an exciting vibrant area that as people arrive to campus for their student visits, as they arrive to visit their student at Iowa State, they’re going to see this area that’s lively and busy 365 days per year.”

Jorgensen said the parking lot work going on right now should be completed before the upcoming football season. That lot should be operating on game days this fall.

He said the university expects to break ground on the mixed-use development in the spring of 2024. There’s no concrete timeline right now to finish it.