The Board of Regents levied a rare rejection Thursday of a University of Iowa construction project, opting not to approve — at least for now — a long-awaited renovation of the 100-year-old Iowa Memorial Union.
Citing “unprecedented uncertainty about federal funding” and suggesting the $81.4 million modernization is “probably not a project that is immediately necessary,” Regent David Barker during the board meeting proposed tabling the proposal.
“Do you think that given the uncertainties about federal funding in the moment, it would be prudent to maybe postpone that for some short period of time?” Barker asked UI Senior Vice President and Architect Rod Lehnertz, who pushed for its approval by citing student-backed fees approved in 2023 to help pay debt incurred for the project.
“We all have many concerns about the federal issues — with research, indirect cost support, Medicaid and the others that are being discussed,” Lehnertz said, but the fees being collected to pay back debt incurred for the student union project could not be redirected toward research or health care. “So it’s an already established funded project,” he said.
Lehnertz also noted the long-standing deferred maintenance needs at the union, dating to before the 2008 flood that devastated the facility, earning it recovery support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The board had approved “fiscally prudent” upgrades at that time, according to Lehnertz. “But the federal government did not allow it and disallowed it and actually said they'd take away the federal dollars if we tried to do the work we wanted to do beyond the recovery, and we were directed to stop all work we might do,” he said.
Given restrictions on those FEMA funds, the university could not pursue the additional upgrades to the union until 2021 — when it began planning this project. A phase one proposed in 2023 aimed to spend $75 million to renovate 93,000 square feet — including moving student health from the west side of campus to the updated union.
“The IMU would undergo a major renovation of its original 1925 construction and its three subsequent building additions,” according to the 2023 proposal, noting, “there are few, if any, existing record building documents. For the design to be complete, there would need to be an extensive construction manager at risk lead, and destructive investigation activities, including select demolition by the construction manager at risk to determine the location and configuration of all major building systems.”
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Citing “unprecedented uncertainty about federal funding” and suggesting the $81.4 million modernization is “probably not a project that is immediately necessary,” Regent David Barker during the board meeting proposed tabling the proposal.
“Do you think that given the uncertainties about federal funding in the moment, it would be prudent to maybe postpone that for some short period of time?” Barker asked UI Senior Vice President and Architect Rod Lehnertz, who pushed for its approval by citing student-backed fees approved in 2023 to help pay debt incurred for the project.
“We all have many concerns about the federal issues — with research, indirect cost support, Medicaid and the others that are being discussed,” Lehnertz said, but the fees being collected to pay back debt incurred for the student union project could not be redirected toward research or health care. “So it’s an already established funded project,” he said.
Lehnertz also noted the long-standing deferred maintenance needs at the union, dating to before the 2008 flood that devastated the facility, earning it recovery support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The board had approved “fiscally prudent” upgrades at that time, according to Lehnertz. “But the federal government did not allow it and disallowed it and actually said they'd take away the federal dollars if we tried to do the work we wanted to do beyond the recovery, and we were directed to stop all work we might do,” he said.
Given restrictions on those FEMA funds, the university could not pursue the additional upgrades to the union until 2021 — when it began planning this project. A phase one proposed in 2023 aimed to spend $75 million to renovate 93,000 square feet — including moving student health from the west side of campus to the updated union.
“The IMU would undergo a major renovation of its original 1925 construction and its three subsequent building additions,” according to the 2023 proposal, noting, “there are few, if any, existing record building documents. For the design to be complete, there would need to be an extensive construction manager at risk lead, and destructive investigation activities, including select demolition by the construction manager at risk to determine the location and configuration of all major building systems.”
‘Unprecedented uncertainty’ leads regents to delay Iowa Memorial Union upgrade
The Board of Regents on Thursday levied a rare rejection of a University of Iowa construction project, opting not to approve -- at least for a period of time -- a long-awaited renovation of the 100-year-old Iowa Memorial Union.
www.thegazette.com
