ITs a great idea but if you want people to populate a new town or city you've first got to move some companies and jobs there. Once jobs are there, the people will always follow. How to get companies to move there? Provide tax incentives: companies will do almost anything to get a tax incentive.
The University goes first. Nevada has zero income tax, almost no property tax. It's about as business friendly as it gets (no 9 on some random list I found); the problem is it's a barren desert devoid of anything worth doing.
You smack a big research university into it, and bam, suddenly construction companies are there, then housing, then food, etc etc. Hopefully some new ventures get spun up by students and faculty, and now we're running.
