Des Moines soccer deal could get $16.4M lease grant
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Rendering: Courtesy of Pro Iowa
The Des Moines City Council will consider a new grant Monday that would return nearly all lease payments for the planned $95 million downtown soccer stadium.
Why it matters: The arrangement could make financing for the 5,500-seat stadium work, but it also increases taxpayer-backed incentives for the long-planned downtown soccer project.
Driving the news: If approved, the city would award an annual $656,074 grant to the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation after the stadium and public plaza are completed, just $1 less than the foundation's lease payments.
By the numbers: The project has already secured about $62 million in approved or committed public support, including up to $23.5 million in state tax rebates, $17 million from Polk County, and $21.5 million in Des Moines grants.
Zoom in: Des Moines' already-approved portions are a $7 million grant for the stadium project, $1.5 million for the plaza and $13 million tied to environmental costs at the former Dico steel wheel manufacturing site.
The bottom line: The proposed lease-offset grant would add approximately $16.4 million of public assistance over 25 years.
- That would bring the total public assistance tied to the project to about $78.4 million, though the city frames the lease grant as recycling ISDF's own rent payments back to the foundation.
Context: The potential of a grant-back arrangement was referenced in a June 8 council document when a 50-year lease with ISDF was approved.
Behind the scenes: The grant is one of the final pieces in a complex, long-running effort to assemble the project's public-private funding mix.
- It was announced in 2019, delayed in 2022 due to supply-chain and cost pressures, and remained in limbo until recently because of a funding gap and negotiations with local governments.
Flashback: The project drew pushback over its growing public funding when Polk County increased its contribution from $7 million to $17 million in 2024.
What's next: If approved, the annual grant would begin after the stadium and public plaza are completed, which is expected by Dec. 31, 2029.