The vote authorized MSU to enter into necessary development agreements to construct restaurants, housing, retail shops, office space and a hotel on the northeastern corner of South Harrison Road and Trowbridge Road. Those developments will be funded through a private-public partnership between MSU and two developers.

Plans to construct a 6,000-seat Olympic sports arena, which would host varsity women’s volleyball gymnastics and men’s wrestling events as well as concerts and other campus activities in the Gateway District were also approved by the board. Constructing the arena is expected to cost the university $150 million.

Balow raised concerns about some of the project’s funding coming from the university general fund, which he said faces some "significant stressors" already. He said he would prefer for athletics revenue and private donations to be a larger portion of the project funding. 

Despite his vote against the measure, Balow said he supports the project and called it "exciting."

Trustee Rema Vassar echoed the need for donor funding to prop up the development saying that while "we do need the project, we also need to preserve our dollars." She voted in favor of the proposal.

Several members of the community also raised objections to the proposed development. Tom Munley, a public commenter speaking in support of the defunct varsity swim and dive team, criticized the university for planning to spend $150 million to host three non-revenue sports that would "never generate the revenue to pay for that facility."

Munley also sought to poke holes in project supporters’ claims that revenue from non-athletic events at the future arena could help pay off its construction costs. How could the board expect to fill the Olympic arena, Munley asked, when various existing venues already go unused during the weekend.

Between agenda items, Terry Link, who was the inaugural director of MSU’s Office of Campus Sustainability from 2000 to 2009, approached the podium to express concerns about the project’s ecological impact, but was told to return to his seat.

"The energy that it takes to build that facility is going to have incredible impacts on people all over the world," Link said after the meeting. "Science is showing us that we need to restrict our development here in the United States so that people in Burkina Faso and other poor places can be lifted up."

Now that the vote has passed, MSU will enter into a partnership with developers Gillespie Group and Goldenrod Companies to begin developing the district — expected to be operational starting late 2027.