As summer dims and fall lights up, college campuses begin to bustle, and campus leaders start to think about ways to capitalize on their school’s energy. One option is to find more ways to draw people to campus, beyond students. Adding hotels and conference centers to campus has long been one avenue, but many schools are going even further, turning parts of their campuses into lively entertainment zones, where people can work, learn, play and meet.

Here’s a look at what’s happening at colleges around the country.

The upsides of a side gig

Meetings and conferences have long been a side gig for colleges and universities, but now a number of schools are adding entertainment districts, which feel sort of like a small town embedded in a university campus. Depending on the college, a district might have a full-service hotel, a conference space, cultural or arts venues, restaurants, retail shops, offices and housing for students. What colleges aim for with this idea is to turn a football stadium that’s primarily used for eight or nine weekends each fall into a venue that’s used year-round for all sorts of events. At colleges, entertainment districts serve multiple audiences: students and sports fans but also visitors, especially those in town for a conference or convention. In some cases, college hotels and conference centers provide hands-on learning to students in hospitality majors.

Kansas leads the way

In the Midwest, the University of Kansas in Lawrence has been a role model in this trend. Phase I of its Gateway District upgraded historic David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium — the first college football stadium west of the Mississippi — and added a 55,000-square-foot conference center. The district will eventually include arts/entertainment options, dining, retail, offices, lodging and parking. Kim Anspach, executive director of Explore Lawrence, called the development “visionary,” with “the potential to invigorate the local economy by attracting a diverse range of visitors and events.” Meanwhile, in Ames, Iowa, work is underway on CyTown, a mixed-use district between Iowa State University’s Jack Tice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum. The 94-acre parcel will include suites, offices, retail and restaurants, and hotel and conference space. Early plans called for a 200-room Marriott hotel, named The Cardinal after the university’s mascot, with a rooftop bar. Developers say CyTown should be completed in 2027.

Spirited competition in the SEC

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is famous for fiery rivalries, and that competitive spirit infiltrates other aspects of campus life, including entertainment districts. The University of Tennessee, with the sixth-largest college stadium in the country, has thrown down a big challenge with its Neyland Entertainment District. Crews recently broke ground on the $280 million development, and plans call for a 240-room/60-unit condo-hotel, restaurants and event spaces. Ole Miss, another SEC school with a fervent football fan base and tons of tradition, hopes to start work next year on an entertainment zone on 25 acres around its Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. Like UT’s project, it will have a condo-hotel and retail spaces as well as a plaza. And although the University of Kentucky’s football program typically has not rivaled that of other SEC standouts, UK plans to demolish a former community college campus next to its Kroger Stadium in Lexington so it, too, can build an entertainment district.

Small colleges get on board

Even schools that aren’t big names are trying out entertainment districts. The University of Colorado-Colorado Springs has about 11,000 students, one-third as many as the main CU campus in Boulder, but it has 500 acres that it could develop between campus and downtown. Its plan, like many others, goes beyond sports, with accommodations and events and meeting space for campus and community. School officials say the hotel and meeting space would also serve as a learning lab for students in its new hospitality, tourism and resort management program. The walkable district would have cultural offerings — it’s near the school’s college of arts — as well as residential and commercial elements. In Georgetown, Texas, a town of 80,000 that’s 30 minutes north of Austin, Southwestern University’s SU560 project sounds like a small town in the making. About half of its 67 acres will be parks, and meeting planners will be interested in the sizable hotel and conference center that’s planned as well as a 38,000-square-foot entertainment center. Office space, research facilities and even some single-family homes are part of this project. 

Beyond the zone

Of course, not every school is developing an entertainment zone. Some are going more traditional, simply building a conference hotel on their campus. The University of Nebraska in Lincoln, for example, has opened The Scarlet Hotel on the school’s Nebraska Innovation Campus. The 154-room hotel is a public/private venture with a rooftop bar, 6,000 square feet of event space and a location adjacent to the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center. Syracuse University in New York is teaming up with Graduate by Hilton, known for 35 hotels that embody a college’s unique spirit, on a 200-room hotel with event space. In the Boston metro area, Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, has renovated the 91 rooms at its Wylie Inn, a wise move considering the property’s enticing oceanfront location and 17,000 square feet of meeting space. Meanwhile, work is under way at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on the Babson College Executive Lodge and Conference Center. It will have 70 guest rooms and conference space. Early this year, UMass at Lowell pitched the idea of building a new ice rink and 120-room hotel with meeting space, all adjacent to its Tsongas Center in downtown Lowell.