MASON CITY – The following are the meeting minutes from the Mason City council work session held on March 8, 2017. The meeting covered two competing hotel proposals – one from G8 Development (Philip Chodur) the other from Gatehouse.
The City Council of the City of Mason City, Iowa, met in Worksession pursuant to law and rules of said Council, in the 2nd Floor Conference Room of City Hall at 7:00 P.M., on March 8, 2017. The meeting was called to order by the Mayor and on roll being called, there were present, Mayor in the Chair Bookmeyer and the following Council Members: Lee, Schickel, Hickey, Adams, Schoneman. Absent: Solberg.
1. Staff presentation and Council discussion regarding RFQ submissions for the Downtown Hotel: Administrator Trout reviewed his memo.
Adams questioned the City having to pay Gatehouse for a feasibility study with Trout stating that was not common, nor was the 4% development fee.
Schoneman asked about EB5 financing with Trout stating it would take too long (a year) which was why Chodur was going with USDA.
Schickel referenced Gatehouse and asked if there was a referendum, would there be three questions and would the votes all have to be “Yes” votes for the measure to move forward with Trout concurring.
Schoneman mentioned a lot was conceptual with Gatehouse with Trout concurring stating that would all have to be firmed up.
Adams asked how many hotels Gatehouse had executed and the size of those hotels with Trout stating eight to ten larger, higher end hotels and there were others in the process of moving forward.
Adams stated one of the delays with Gatehouse would be working around the parking issue and asked why they just now found out about that now with Trout stating he had not brought it up.
Lee asked if Gatehouse’s proposal and G8’s were both with Marriot with Trout concurring, advising however Chodur had provided a letter (which Trout read) that said he was the only one that would be allowed to use that and held the franchise. He also stated the proposal by G8 was the same that had been proposed to IDEA and G8 had secured a commitment from the bank and the general contractor thought work could start quickly, adding if a decision needed to be made today, he would recommend moving forward with G8.
Schoneman stated he really liked a lot of the design and creativity with regards to the Gatehouse proposal, but had to be realistic and questioned how this would pass if the citizens wouldn’t even approve a Capital Improvement Levy.
Lee asked if the vote would have to be 60% in favor with Trout concurring, stating all three questions on the ballet would have to be “Yes” votes at 60%.
Schickel stated he was excited about the two proposals and thanked Trout for his analysis, but believed this was a community decision, adding staff had had a week and the Council one night to review the information and for that reason he was not prepared to make a decision and while he understood the need to move forward, he believed the community needed a maximum of two weeks to review and vet the information.
Schoneman referred to G8’s plan stating Chodur was building a lot of real estate and had most everything completed and while Gatehouse had a great proposed project he did not think it could be done in Mason City and believed the City should focus on G8.
Bookmeyer pointed out G8 was looking to partner with us while Gatehouse was looking to us as the Client which was different and in the end, Gatehouse did not have a lot of “skin in the game”. He also stated the 4% developer fee would essentially mean the taxpayers would be writing a check and it was difficult to imagine selling bonds when the City has been trying to reduce the debt levy, adding it would essentially be giving them a zero interest loan.
Lee stated he loved the Gatehouse vision and they had done a lot of hotels over the last ten years, but also stressed the citizens of Mason City had voted down the Capital Improvement Levy and that was pretty self-explanatory, so he questioned this getting three “Yes” votes and agreed with Schickel that he would like to wait a couple weeks to hear from the citizens, noting he was still digesting the information and wondered how the Council could expect the citizens to do so on such short notice with Adams in agreement that waiting two weeks wouldn’t hurt anything.
Trout commented on how short the turnaround time was for Gatehouse and questioned whether they could get everything done. He also stated if Council wanted to move the vote from August to November that would provide more time, but stressed if the City did not have it by December we would lose the money.
Hickey reviewed the funding and the cost of the Museum and expressed concern over Gatehouse’s 4% fee.
Further discussion followed regarding the timeline, whether the election should be in August or November and how much time the Council and community needed to make a decision.
Bookmeyer asked if it would be appropriate to put together and Exclusive Development Agreement for the March 21st Agenda with Trout stating he would try.
It was the consensus of the majority of the Council to place the item on the March 21st Council Agenda and include proceedings pertaining to an Exclusive Development Agreement.
The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8:30 P.M.
Why not turn some of the mall into a hotel?
Good gravy. My wife and I transplanted to Des Moines several years back. We thought it was bad back home in Mason then. Reading this just proves we were wrong. It’s much, much worse now.
We can ALL get out and VOTE THIS DOWN in August with the referendum. It’s too bad we can’t vote now. And it’s also too bad that hundreds of thousands of dollars have already been wasted on this farce.
RUN ! don’t walk away from this type of elected official scam – Here in Worthless county we a Number 1 in iowa for per capita debt because of our elected snake oil elected officals from mayors to and especially county board of supervisors all doing favors/giveaways to large corporations at local taxpayer expense – nothing honest about these POS. Don’t be fooled by these slick talking LIARS.
Remember when city hall wouldn’t let the hospital build a parking ramp because of all the rapes and robberies that would occur? instead the bulldozed blocks and blocks of peoples housing. Now, according to city hall, its going to be a great addition to downtown.
Not true.
Now instead the have over half a mile of parking lot on the main road
Just a LITTLE bit of trickery going on – open your eyes you morons. If a corporation wants it THEY have to build it and PAY for it – the time has ended for public financing – The biggest corporate ripoff to the local taxpayes is T.I.F. added to you property taxes – if they want it then they can pay for it NOT the taxpayers – corrupt BS.
TIF isn’t added to your property taxes.
TIF takes away from your property tax rolls. Anytime TIF is applied to a commercial development project, the taxes the city would normally collect for the building are not collected. Instead, the developer can use those taxes to pay off the cost of the project.
So, lets see if I understand T.I.F. The way it works is they can use money that would go the tax base to pay for the project. Therefore those tax moneys are not collected. It seems that would cause people to have to pay additional taxes or go without certain services.
No, this is still not correct. TIF money is collected. TIF dollars are monies that wouldn’t exist if a project wasnt built. So when a TIF funded project is built, the increase in tax revenues it creates are collected and used to repay TIF bonds.
TIF is not ‘added’ to your property tax bill. It is broken out as a separate line item the day the TIF district is created. You’d be paying the exact same whether the TIF district existed or not. Only difference is it now shows up as a separate line item. Many communities have used TIF financing remarkably successfully and has been shown to be a great tool to spur development.
The rich have decadent plans with others $, if they want their fantasy hotel have the rich people & businesses of Mason City pay for it starting with Mercy Hospital they are a non profit yet made 17 million dollars a couple of years ago, get the $ from them and all of the rich doctors in Mason City that Hotel plan would be shut down they are greedy they would never pay for someone’s business plan, they may throw in a few dollars yet that also would come with contingencies on if they got a plaque or honorary award.
The purpose of governing a city does not include creating a business empire 1.) Why are citizens forced to pay anything for someones business venture that is why “banks” exist, people who want to start a business and need financing get loans from a bank, 2.) The mall failed it is 12 million in the hole, 3.) There was an article in the Globe Gazette recently that stated the Music Man Square was having a tough time 4.) Who is going to want to come to Mason City for anything, driving through the CAFO’S pork palace putrid air to go stay at a Hotel 5.) Exactly what does Mason City have to offer and why would people pay Hotel prices to stay in Mason City, one time in Mason City’s life there were small unique shops, not anymore also there are no dinner houses, unless one considers the Frank Loyd Wright a Dinner House, in my view the hotel should come up with their own funding and citizens should not be liable for someones business plans, the 12 million supposed funding grant needs to be returned to citizens, they need their own $ it is their $ they need to spend or save how ever they want, “Fascists Lives Don’t Matter” just say no to fascist mindsets. TA
Vote the whole thing down. The taxpayers gain nothing from giving all that money to developers.
Spend your money on a fabulous trip to Elmwood instead.
Isn’t a shame that the troll can not have a civil conversation without calling names and throwing insults.
“developer”?
Developer’s!
NOT
Is!
For heavens sake even Christ condemned the rich, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-About-Rich-People/, hurling truth is not an insult, nor is calling a camel a camel, naturally not everyone falls in the brainwashed pattern/column.
Did I miss were they mention that G8 has missed the deadline 3-4 times now? Bring that up.
And that all they have to prove financing is a suspicious-looking letter for an internet bank? That probably doesn’t even exist? The Chodur boys have always been scam artists. Ask anybody who’s ever rented one of Joe’s houses.
Your 100 percent right. Waste of money and time!!! Forget it
They never mention option 3….
Not doing anything at all and give up on this project.
This “pie in the sky” project was a great concept if everything had fallen into place. With all the problems, false starts, and broken promises maybe Karma is trying to tell us this is a bad idea.
I don’t think that Chodur’s G8 proposal should be considered at all. He was given plenty of time, how long was it delayed, a year? He want’s this one to build a resume’ but has no track record, something stinks right there. Again, he should not be considered. I like the Gatehouse concept, but again, I don’t think the City should be involved in picking and choosing to stimulate a hotel to compete with other Hotels in town that that they didn’t help at all! That is just stupid and a slap in the face to the people who build businesses here in town with no help and have low occupancy rates. We don’t need another hotel and as far as a convention center, who would want to come to Mason City for a convention? Seriously, who, has a study been done?