Des Moines' $84 million soccer stadium project delayed

The completion of a professional soccer stadium and adjacent plaza in downtown Des Moines is being delayed a year, project organizers announced in a press release Monday morning.

• The kick-off for Iowa's first United Soccer League (USL) Championship club is now set for 2025.

Why it matters: At about $84 million, it's one of the largest ongoing projects in Des Moines.

• It's also the centerpiece of a $535 million plan to develop an area that had been vacant and blighted for decades.

Catch up fast: Kyle Krause, Kum & Go's former CEO, has been working to bring the Division II men's soccer league to Iowa for more than a decade. 

• As a result, Pro Iowa and Krause+ — the real estate arm of the company— are building a 6,300-seat stadium at the Dico Superfund site near 15th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
• More than $50 million has been secured for the stadium project, including $23.5 million from the state and at least $5 million from local governments.

What's happening: The timeline is shifting to factor supply chain and cost challenges.

• Remediation of the Dico site and conversations with vendors are also a factor, the secretary of the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation, a nonprofit that will own the stadium, said in Monday's statement.

Zoom in: The city government's pieces linked with preparing the site are done, Pam Cooksey, an assistant city manager, told Axios in April.

• A separate levee project that goes around the west and south sides of the site will be underway this year.
• The EPA will replace a groundwater treatment system, which is dependent on grading of the site by the developer, Cooksey noted.

What they're saying: Designs are evolving but plans are well underway for construction, according to Monday's press release.

• Organizers are committed to keeping cost projections consistent with fundraising goals.

The bottom line: The project is still on but it's being complicated by some of the same factors hitting other large metro projects.