A master plan for the proposed soccer stadium complex, valued at $95 million, includes a five-story building for office and retail and a 500-space parking garage. Rendering by Invision Architecture

Plans to open a professional soccer stadium in Des Moines have been delayed until March 2023, a move dictated by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Kyle Krause, chairman and CEO of Krause Group, told the Business Record today.

“There’s a lot of more important things that have grabbed people’s attention over the last 60 days or so,” said Krause, who is behind efforts to bring a United Soccer League Championships franchise team to Des Moines. 

“You just don’t get all the pieces put together that a project of this complexity takes under that type of distraction … that has been affecting all of us.” 

United Soccer League is a professional men’s league that began in 2011 and has 36 teams. It is considered a Division II Professional League, putting it under Major League Soccer.

Last September, the Krause Group unveiled plans to build a 6,000- to 8,000-seat multiuse sports stadium along Southwest 14th Street south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. The proposed $60 million development would include an open-air sports and entertainment venue and a street-level plaza.

Plans originally called for obtaining various city approvals for the facility’s design and site plan this spring, according to a document submitted to Des Moines in November. Construction was expected to begin in September and be completed by mid-2022.

Backers of the effort to bring professional soccer to Des Moines had until April 1 to show financial support from the Des Moines community for a team and soccer stadium.

A March 2023 opening of the stadium is now being eyed, said Krause, who has owned the Des Moines Menace for 25 years and would be owner of the new professional league soccer team. He said he talked with United Soccer League officials who told him they “were very supportive” of the delay.

“This isn’t the only market in the country affected by what’s going on,” Krause said. “They still very much want Des Moines, Iowa, [to be part] of the Championship League.”

Krause said he remains confident that he will be able to secure financing for the project from both the public and private sectors. 

He said the stadium as well as the development planned around it could provide a much-needed boost to Central Iowa’s economy.

“The economic development component of the project is more key now than it was” before the pandemic, Krause said. “Our project, through the construction jobs it will provide and the other people we will employ, will really help to stimulate things and help get things going again.”
He said he doesn’t anticipate that the project will be scaled back in any way.

“The fans want their experience,” he said. “We want to make sure the stadium is architecturally interesting – not something that we’d be embarrassed by by our city and our region. 

In addition to the stadium, Krause has proposed the construction of a 500-vehicle parking ramp, restaurants and a five-story, 150,000-square-foot mixed-use retail and office building.

Krause said the parking garage is still planned but other pieces of the development are still under discussion.

“We need to see what happens in real estate in Central Iowa because of the coronavirus – what shifts occur,” he said. “You may see some tweaking of the product that we put there.”

In December, Blackacre Development LLC, a subsidiary of Krause Group, purchased 9 acres for the sports and outdoor entertainment venue. Blackacre also bought 3.4 acres at 315 S.W. 14th St. in August.

Related article: $60 million soccer stadium proposed for Des Moines