I'm going to resist the urge to dive into a tangent to try to explain why BYU has invested in renovating the Marriott Center, the BYU Broadcasting building, etc. That's a different discussion.
With regards to City Creek, yes an ROI is DEFINITELY expected. And I'm talking monetary gains. Sure, City Creek also provides a great platform for the church to advertise and do special events, but they would not have been involved if there was no expected ROI.
Just curious, where do you get the $5M profit figure for BYU? I'd be interested to look through those numbers, but I didn't think they released financial statements.