by Matt Marquardt –
City Administrator Brent Trout unveiled his recommendations for a multi-purpose arena in Mason City on Tuesday night. You can watch the entire presentation and the council’s discussion of the plan below.
(PHOTO: Bret Trout, Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, and Councilman Alex Kuhn ponder a possible multi-purpose arena for Mason City.)
The project could include 3 phases and cost nearly $30 million. Trout recommended only phase A and B at a cost of $21 million. The project would be financed by “a large chunk of TIF” (tax increment financing.) TIF would be the primary, “less painful” source, Trout explained. He also suggested fundraising, selling naming rights, various taxes, general obligation bonds, and a lease purchase plan as ways to get the project paid for the most easily.
Trout showed examples of other arenas done in other, mostly larger cities, many of them in the twin cities area, and talked about how they operated. He also mentioned Waterloo’s Young Arena and an arena in Ottumwa, which has run into serious difficulties according to news reports. Trout said some of the arenas had people using the ice “from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.” He also verified that Waldorf College would bring their hockey team to play in Mason City if it had an arena. “They are an Iowa school, they want to play in Iowa.” Waldorf currently plays their games in Albert Lea.
The cost to operate the arena would be roughly $691,935 per year according to Trout. He estimated, conservatively, that revenue would be $692,000. Most of the revenue would come from ice time rental and concessions and beer sales.
The council was impressed with Trout’s presentation and thanked staff for their work. Councilman John Lee right away said that he could not support the project without taking it to a vote from the citizens. “It’s absolutely positively a necessity that the public gets a vote on this one,” Lee said. Councilwoman Jean Marinos said she would want a feasibility study done. The cost of that was $75,000 several years ago, and the cost today could reach $125,000 and take months to complete.
It was also said that if the state rolls back commercial property tax rates aggressively, as Governor Terry Branstad has supported, the project would not happen. “It’s ballgame,” Mayor Eric Bookmeyer said.
Watch entire presentation and discussion from council:
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Even the globe had a story about how these multi-purpose centers are money losers. Now our city leaders want to bring this to town. What a stupid joke. Bring jobs here then we can discuss paying for something we know going in will be a money pit.Trout should be fired for bringing this forward.
Nyet comrade! No one here reads your Bulgarian.
What Lee means is that he doesn’t want to be held accountable if it flops. Don’t waste our time and money if you are too scared to voice an actual opinion on the topic at hand.
Glad to see this being a public discussion. I don’t know the numbers and probably no one commenting here really does either.
The one area that troubles me is the 4.8 million for the gym. That is a lot of money just so parks and rec and others don’t have to rent space from the schools. If they pay 5 schools each a thousand bucks a year you could lease space forever and never come close to the 4.8 million dollars.
Funny people are all surprised that an arena won’t make money. Most arenas don’t make money! The public supports them because of the money the arenas bring into the community and because people want to live in a town where there is something to do other than meth. Look at Waterloo: they developed their downtown by building an arena and a convention center and IT WORKED! That won’t happen here when they put it to a public vote because grey hairs here only want lower taxes. That’s also why nobody wants to live here other than people in retirement homes on fixed incomes and the town resembles Somalia more than Cedar Falls.
I have to wonder why they never kept the ice rink at the fairgrounds up instead of letting it deteriorate? Wouldn’t it still be cheaper to fix it up? Also, NIACC has a beautiful auditorioum for entertainment and have trouble filling it. Why would a multi purpose center do any better? Where are they going to get the money for any better entertainment than NIACC or the Surf gets? These people are dillusional. Once again, address the important issues here. Bring in some decent jobs that don’t compromise the enviornment and clean up the town. They also keep wanting everything down town. Why do you think Marinos got on council? The down town is dead and they need to quit beating that dead horse. The people that have the money want all this crap and they could care less about the people on social security and fixed incomes.
Hockey,hmmmm is that where a bunch of people get together on a sheet of ice and and begin to hit each other with clubs while chashing a little round thing from one end to the other?
I agree, the public needs to vote. Yes, the Fairgrounds would be a much better choice for Hockey. I think it has more of a chance than some of the other things the city has spent money on. Which brings to mind the Historical Park Inn. There was lots of hoopla and boasting about how well they were doing the first few months. Now nothing. I truey hope it will be self supporting and can move ahead with establishing a resturant in the near future. Any news on this would be welcome.
Once you stumble out of the frat’s beer keg party, marry and have kids, life takes on a different perspective. Instead of complaining, throwing out taxpayer’s money; trying to build something new, we need to embrace what we have.
#1 mistake was declining the casino.
Mason City IS an event center. There’s “big city” things to do, but there’s not a wide variety. You get what you get. The best idea would be to create an events blog, similar to NIT, and list everything that’s going on. Wait, that’s what Facebook does.
If the citizens dont get to vote on this, than we shouldnt be required to pay hire taxes because of it. If that happens im subtracting that from my tax payment. Let them try and take it from me. This is getting absolutely stupid how this administration is spending money. Time to go on diet!!!!!!