(photo from firstcitizensnb.com)
MASON CITY – The largest employer in Mason City – Mercy Hospital – has endorsed the downtown Renaissance Project.
In a video statement, Mercy CEO Dan Varnum said Mercy – “North Iowa is proud to support the River City Renaissance project.”
CEO Varnum claims that in the next 5-7 years, one-third of Mercy Physicians will reach retirement age, and the proposed multi-use arena, museum and other amenities connected to the Renaissance project will make Mason City more attractive for recruiting new doctors to town.
“This project will support efforts to recruit and retain physicians, nurses and other Mercy colleagues to the area,” according to a social media post from Mercy Hospital.
The arena would be built in the former JC Penney’s store in Southbridge Mall – just about a mile or so from the Mercy campus. It would be used for ice activities 6-8 months out of the year. Other activities such as concerts, tournaments and expos would held inside the arena the rest of the year.
60 thoughts on “Mason City’s largest employer – Mercy Hospital – backs Renaissance Project”
Mercy pays NO TAXES, so no risk! They have no right to say anything about how they get used!
Plus, does he even live in Mason City?
Hey dummy, Mercy pays boatloads in taxes. Sales taxes. Payroll taxes. They also employ more people than anyone in at least a 80 mile radius and all those people contribute sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes. Mercy’s take on this project should be a POWERFUL endorsement for those that truly care about this community.
Well, just wait a few hours for Peter Children to decipher Skippers column and tell us again for the 1000th time to vote no on this deal. After all, if you can’t trust a former dive bar owner / siding salesman, who can you trust.
You forgot to mention that he is also a purveyor of so-called “art”.
Peter Children would have made a good snake-oil salesman back in the 1800’s.
But then again at his very advanced age, perhaps he was.
The Red Llama, where everyone can get shit-faced and talk about the “good old days” and just sit on their ass.
Ah yes, the Bloody Camel. Some remember it for its stale smells of smoke, beer and for the piss hall that it was.
I was originally a no vote but now I am a yes. There is no risk to the taxpayers of Mason City for this deal unless the Mall owner and the Hotel owner does not pay their taxes. (I know, the Mall has to get their act together and pay their back taxes.) Even with that, it will get done with this owner or another buyer. If we don’t take this deal, another city will get this money. Yes, it is state money and yes, you and I paid into this state money. I would rather have it spent here than some other town spending our tax money. This whole thing could not be the answer that Mason City needs but it sure as hell won’t hurt.
Was in Waverly the other day for lunch when I was introduced to some Waverly business people. When they found out I was from Mason City they asked my why so much crime in Mason City. They keep hearing how bad it is up there as they put it.. We seem to be getting quite a reputation for have lots a bad dudes in this town and too much crime.
Got to clean up the crime in Mason City before we would ever vote for this crazy project.
I have decided to vote no. Until the chamber and these employer’s start coming forward to support higher wages and benefits for employees I will not support anything that will line their pockets.
Your odds are better at Diamond Joe.’s than the chance your property won’t be assessed by the city to pay this off.
Over a 100 years ago when I was young…..I ran a bar at 217 north Federal called The Massonitte. There were no cell phones, no computers…..consequently there were salesmen on the road calling on local merchants to sell their product. These traveling salesmen filled the motel rooms and restaurants and bars. Today computers replaced that traveling sales force…..For
Christ’s sake vote no!
Peter. I was one that didn’t believe these hotels were full during the week, but when I made the calls to them this week I found that they were in fact full. I was originally a no vote but I am really thinking why haven’t these hoteliers built another property? It does appear we need another Hotel.
Another liberal spoof – well it’s that hollow -weiny time of the year – so lube up for fat cats and corrupt elected officials who are shoving this B S on us.
Hate to inform you but this deal is a ‘conservative deal. They hope to conserve their own investments in the city. Look at the people behind this and you will find Republican after Republican.
Nope, I am not buying your crap. Fact is the whole bunch are liberals that love government handouts. While there may be some that are registered Republicans that does not mean they are conservative. In case you didn’t know we call them RINO’s. They are phony and support all the Democratic hate American screw the working man the Democrats can put out. You love to put the blame on Republicans but the losers lefty’s have are being exposed, one by one and we are kicking their sorry butts out! Democrats and RINO’s are total losers!
Yeah, there are so many liberal property owners in Mason City, especially downtown. The alt right Republicrooks have seen to that.
Varnum the fat cat has the money honey so screw you deplorables.
Thank you CEO Varnum for coming out in favor of this EXCELLENT project.
I never did care one way or the other, but the more I get something pushed down my throat, the more I tend to think it must be a bad deal. Anybody else feel that way?
I’m with you brother. That is exactly the way I feel. Wife already voted NO.
I agree. I’m still angry about sliced bread.
I would also like a dome over Mohawk stadium. A indoor water park, a new 18 hole golf course, a bigger airport for all the new people coming to town, perhaps a new race track for Nascar to come to town, I know all this will happen
Funny! I know LVS is not making this comment.
Dumb Ass Liberal
It makes sense to vote yes. Why let the mall and downtown die? The reward out weighs the risk. If your worried about property taxes, move to Nora Springs.
Since when is the Mall the RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TAXPAYERS?
Get a life you fool!
Only a very simple minded person, would think this is only going to benefit the mall. Thats maybe why your so miserable.
Talk about stupid. Mason City doesn’t have a downtown! Mason City’s downtown is on the highway out west.
The downtown wanted that mall, they got the mall and it destroyed the downtown. It’s DEAD except for a few bars and assorted business.
Now these buffoons want us to bail them out. Go suck a raw egg!
I guess your right. Just do nothing. Doing nothing always works out very well.
This guy is smoking his socks. FYI, I am voting no!
This is exactly why I do not get my health care in Mason City. Trust is out the window!
Mercy’s CEO don’t know how bad this is for the city and obviously hasn’t done his homework. That is inept! I’ll bet he doesn’t know the Riskaissance Project won’t even cash flow. This CEO sits on his throne and could care less the taxpayers get stuck paying for this while the movers and shakers line their pockets, with NONE of their own money invested or at risk.
These people are clueless. This guy is supposed to be smart. Of all people the CEO should know better!
How bad ‘this’ is for the city? Have you looked around this town lately? Derelict buildings everywhere, severe issues with poverty, and very little opportunity for work I would classify as a ‘career’. This town can’t get much worse.
We have to start investing if we ever want to turn the tide and make this town grow again.
This is NOT how you “fix” your town. First of all there is nothing wrong with the Mall as it sits. The guy bought if for 1-1/2 million dollars. With 220,000 square feet to rent out he could drop the rent to $5.00 per square foot, take 35% away for overhead and he still nets $715,000.00 a year in profit. That is a handsome return on your investment. I would have bought it if I would know it was available at that price!
No, this mall is just fine the way it is and the new mall owner will lease it up and make tons of money.
We have Bookmeyer and what seems like the very worst city council in the entire state to thank for the state of the city – which is in ruins. They devastated that town. No look at ’em flee the sinking ship.
Bookmeyer is not the problem. City council is not the problem either. This town has been on a downward spiral long before Bookmeyer even moved here. Whenever an opportunity has surfaced for this community, it has always been turned away by the same small group of vocal curmudgeons who throw childish tantrums at city council meetings. You know who they are.
Bull Shit!
Are you trying to deny that this town has been de-populating since at least 1970? Are you trying to deny that the general trend since at least 1970 is losing well paying employers? Are you denying that Eric Bookmeyer was not the mayor in 1970? Are you denying that Max Weaver has been personally responsible for job loses in this city while Bookmeyer brought several employment prospects to the table ? Who really is the problem in this town?
You obviously are not from Mason City. We learned back in the 80s that Mason City has a “selective industrial growth policy” that the Chamber and leadership use to guide the cities growth. Summed up, they do not want competition for labor so our local employers don’t have to compete for labor and therefore drive wages up.
They have been so successful in controlling Mason City’s growth that during the baby boom after the second world war that didn’t help grow the city. Check Mason City’s population history!
This city uses these tax projects to keep our local economy going. Those of us that don’t agree with these policies are shoved into the background and have no voice.
This project may or may not be approved but none the less if the folks in charge don’t change their growth policy this city will continue to be nothing more than it already is.
The approval of this project won’t change a thing!
Watchdog, you are no where close to interpreting this correctly at all. So many people have are so negative in this town that they never consider the positive intent.
After Decker closed down in the 70’s, hundreds of good paying jobs were lost instantly. The local economy took a blow. The city government and development groups agreed that it would be better to focus recruitment efforts on small or medium sized businesses to avoid the gut punch of losing a major employer again. There never, ever has been a policy to depress wages, only a suggestion to focus on small and medium sized businesses.
Over the years, we’ve had our shot at landing some good sized employers. It hasn’t been you local government or development groups that have turned these prospects away. It’s been that very same group of curmudgeons throwing childish tantrums at city hall meetings that have stymied this town. This group has done a good deal of damage to the reputation of this city as a good place to do business. For example, you don’t find it interesting that Hyvee considered Albert Lea and Austin for a distribution center, but not Mason City? Can you blame them?? What business wants to be slandered and defamed in city council meetings and in a local tabloid that poses as a ‘newspaper’. What business wants to be shamed and ridiculed for asking for development incentives that they know they can receive in any other city??
I hate to burst your bubble there chump but I belong to the Chamber and have been present when these policies were discussed and IMPLEMENTED. Old Tom Jolas used to tell prospects that wanted to come here that we only want small employers that will keep unions out and wages low. Heard that with my own ears. Your right about wanting only small to medium employers and no gut punch. That fit right into their “selective industrial growth policy”. God forbid you would let a large employer in here that paid good wages. I will take the gut punch any day when it comes to meaningful employment for our people.
Mason City has been very successful keeping decent jobs out of here. Look at what their success has accomplished. It has destroyed this town and now they expect us to invest in it. I cry foul! You bums have got the cart ahead of the horse as always.
What is really bad, they made these decisions behind close doors without the CONSENT of the people. Crooked as a dogs hind foot as they say.
This project will go down in flames as well it should until the powers to be loosen their ugly grip on growth!
That’s why they’re all getting out. The chickens are coming home to roost, and they don’t want to be here when it happens.
I suppose if your make $200,000.+ per year you have the money – 60% do not and do not want our taxes raised to please the rich.
This 60% you speak of probably needs to evaluate their life choices up to this point and realize that they really need to start listening to smart people rather than relying upon their own wits.
This project will not bring in new doctors…as Mercy states. The reason why ?????…….any young doctor coming out of a residency is (usually) in debt up to the sky, therefore they are looking for a large paycheck. Iowa is at the bottom of the Medicare reimbursement totem pole meaning that less money is available for a paycheck. Insurance companies try to fall in line close to Medicare reimbursements. A young doctor can earn 20-25% higher paycheck in all of the states surrounding Iowa, so they will take a job in one of those states. That’s a ‘no-brainer’ . A hockey arena certainly will not attract doctors or any other type of medical provider…..a paycheck usually matters most.
This is the same song and dance that we heard when we “had” to build the mall. No tax payer money to be involved, blah, blah, blah. Need it to enhance downtown. None of which ever came true. How about we get the jobs here to support this kind of expenditure first. Need we be reminded that the city had bail out the mall, then sold it to the worst possible landlord. How can any body want to throw more good money after bad.
This town would be much better off if more people looked through the windshield instead of always looking in the review mirror.
The town would be better off if they listened to what very smart people are telling them (like this he CEO of thecregions largest employer) rather than relying upon information they hear on conservative talk radio or from the geriatric curmudgeons that throw tantrums at city council meetings.
Pretty much what I was trying to get across in my comment.
We need to live in the present, plan for the future and quit living in the past.
The past is history, but, we should learn from it.
Huh? You really think this Virmen fellow is smart, really? He endorses the worst thought out con job I have ever looked at and you are willing to follow this dumb bell off the cliff? Boy oh boy, there is no hope for some people.
There is an old saying, STUPIDITY IS FATAL.
When the areas largest employer is speaking, progressive cities listen and act. Cities that continuously listen to the lowest denominator, like Max weaver or NIT, are towns that accomplish nothing and slowly wither away.
Please share with us how you think this town can bring jobs here…
We recently had a chance to bring a lot of jobs here, a big jump forward and a few jackass council members killed the deal. Just stupid. It should have gone to a vote of the people. Instead Wright county gets the jump forward.
I agree. Prestage was a tremendous opportunity that was pissed away by a very vocal minority in this community. While I don’t think the Prestage proposal was perfect, we should have continued to negotiate with the company for better terms (such as less government incentives offered and stringent odor controls) rather than chase them off. Our shameful public behavior surrounding that development will also prevent any of the spin off industry (cold storage, mechanical contractors,truck sales and repair, packaging warehousing, etc) from even considering locating here.
That hog operation would have brought undesirable immigrants to Mason City that hate Americans. Mason City is not capable of thinking ahead and preparing for such an influx of people.
Mason City dodged a huge bullet when they turned that away. If the stupid city leaders would have prepared years ago to help locate and assimilate desirable immigrants the Prestige thing would have gotten approval. Mason City’s leadership never has done anything positive for this town. All they do is promote a hotel and ice arena that will do NOTHING to better this town. It gets old!
Those “jackasses” listened to the overwhelming majority of constituents who opposed the deal. It is funny to hear you back seat drive 18 months after the fact, suggesting that it should have gone to a public vote, because at the time, a referendum is exactly what the people opposing it demanded again and again, all while people like yourself argued against such measure because “a referendum costs thousands of dollars” (for a project putting tax payers on the hook for millions and millions) and “we cant hold referendums on every little thing” (for the biggest issue in the history of the town)
Get people like you to stop promoting loser projects like this hotel and ice arena to nowhere. Once you start thinking about helping the working class instead of the so called “hot shots” that care only about making money off the taxpayers we may have a change for a brighter future in Mason City.
This 38 million dollar plan was a mess from the git-go. I would never vote for such a negative plan that churns tax dollars and provides for no positive outcome.
Then offer some of this money to a “fortune five hundred company”, to build and bring decent paying jobs. Oh, I know, you will say we don’t have the work force. That is a bogus argument. Build it and they will come.
Once you start building the population base and tax base we can start talking about building a “free standing” ice arena away from Old Town. Putting an ice arena inside a mall is not where it belongs at all.
You asked. and now you know what to do that is positive.
You keep missing the fallacy in your argument!!!! We already offer incentives to any company that would relocate here and provide jobs! That alone doesn’t work because every other city in America is also offering incentives. So we have to provide something else’s e to lure the Fortune 500 company you speak of. Ask yourself what most any growth industry biggest ‘need’ is? Is it financial incentives ? NO! It’s almost always access to a qualified workforce!!!! The areas largest employer is even telling you this, but you doofuses won’t listen! It’s maddening.
Make this an attractive place for employers (like Mercy which is in a growth industry) to recruit and retain employees and the town will grow. Simply offering a few million in incentives to a Fortune 500 company will do nothing because employers can get that anywhere. But they can’t recruit or retain employees to move to places where no one wants to live.
That seals it for me, proof that big business is looking for amenities like this. I am voting Yes.
I hear that you are giving your employees more than the usual 2% raise, Thanks but a steady 3% raise would be great every year,
There’s a lot more going on behind closed doors then is spoke of.