DES MOINES – The state board that holds the key to millions of dollars in potential tax kickbacks to the City of Mason City has put the Renaissance Project on indefinite hold.
An Iowa Economic Development Authority official told NIT Friday that “The board voted to defer this project today until further notice. Once IEDA and the IEDA board has the needed documentation, we will bring it to the board for discussion/action.”
City officials, working with hotel developer G8, were to deliver a signed agreement for a hotel as part of the Renaissance Project. That was accomplished. Then, G8 was to drop a lawsuit against the City of Mason City and Robin Anderson for meddling in the project details. That was also done. Lastly, however, no formal announcement and proof of private investment of at least $10 million has been received by the state from G8, although word is, G8 will have the necessary financing to move ahead in the project. The state must have proof, hoover, of this private investment into the project in order for the Economic Development Board to approve Mason City’s application in the Reinvestment District Program. Mason City was earlier “pre-approved” for up to $7 million in this program, pending many positive developments, some that have yet to be fulfilled. State tax dollars collected in a small area of the downtown (a Reinvestment District cannot exceed 25 acres in size) would be collected over 20 years and sent to Des Moines, which then kicks those tax dollars back to the City. The hotel and other new developments included in this small downtown Reinvestment District must perform well (i.e., collect plenty of taxes) in order for the City to ever reap its full “award” from the state. Contrary to mis-information propagated to the the public, there is no “lump sum” check for millions of dollars for the City from the state.
alleged meddling
ruining the
Renaissance?
NIT has received word that the IEDA Board likely has gotten wind of vicious in-fighting and backstabbing between City elected officials and certain citizens and personalities who have injected themselves into the on-going soap opera that this project has become. They continue to battle over a hotel developer for the Renaissance Project, as millions of dollars in construction proceeds are at stake. G8 would use Henkel Construction of Mason City to build a hotel, while the currently-ousted Gatehouse Mason City, LLC, had chosen Dean Snyder Construction of Clear Lake to build a hotel. The Gatehouse proposal also favors a multi-million dollar re-hab of the Music Man Square along with a skywalk; NIT is told G8 is not so favorable toward that end of the project.
Just yesterday, NIT reported that a city councilman, Joshua Masson, was worried that “the sharks are circling” and the Renaissance Project could be in trouble. Today’s action by the IEDA Board more or less confirms: Mason City’s so-called “leaders” need to get their act together, and fast, or this project and all the public’s treasure that has been spent so far to get to this point will all go to waste.
If it was up to me these ‘handball playing litigation punks’ would be down for the count. Order would be restored. And the golden rule of ‘prosperity shall flourish; would be reinstated. Just saying..
I think Matt would be a great choice for Chamber President. The Chamber is stupid to retain Robin. Look at the negative online publicity. You would have to be a total moron not to understand the damage it is causing.
Women control this position. No males allowed. But no that’s not discrimination is it. ‘Where we going to do lunch today’. lol
Eat your vending machine food or brown bag leftovers and get your ass back to work. ‘Another Merlot, please’. lol
Robin Anderson is a disease in the chamber tree and needs to be pruned from the organization. All in all she is a malicious canker to Mason City. What’s worse is the idiots that pay her to occupy that position.
I’d consider joining the Chamber if Robin was dismissed from her job.
Robin Andersen is required to resign. Citizens of Mason City to hold Mayor and City Council accountable for losses. It’s about time to get this town back in the right direction.
matt chizek what a joke. he had in the paper the credit union was taking two empty buildings and takin them off the market, he forgot about the two empty buildings he was leaving. what a fool. he is very good at spending the credit unions money. look at the added expense of acquiring the old bank building. be the utilities went up 1000% cost from the old building which functioned just fine. he want to be a BIG banker on the shoulders of the credit union customers. first thing he did when he became the CEO was get rid of all the OLD employees and hire all new young girls. lots of knowledge lost there but then I guess he wants to surround himself with young nice looking girls most of whom have no idea whats going on like the OLD employees some of which had been there 25 to 30 yrs. like my opening said WHAT A JOKE
You got that right. It’s the bankers who are at fault for all our money woes. Year after year their in hot water for crooked practices. Its just the tip of that ‘Goliath iceberg of deceit’ that is the east coast money machine in action. Bailouts, scams, etc. etc. Is it Black Monday yet. The market has to dive below 20,000 points to be ‘corrected’ and that is the truth. Look at the big 3 that led this recent loss. With politicians in bed with these ‘ain’t I special’ crowd it will continue. This is where a lone ranger like Matt here should be commented. He is absolutely in the right in exposing the lies to us in a timely fashion. Bravo Sir!
Lets get a view from Loni. What does loni think about this??
You mean Loni Dirksen the Berland & Cram minion?
Here are her qualificatiions:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4FTbqDJynY4/USkw2OOokcI/AAAAAAAABeo/lW65m7A9Avk/s1600/emleader.jpg
Nicely presented to the MC public re: current status of this four year old MC Renaissance pending application for state tax assistance. Appears that Out state officials have run out of patience and willingness to listen to anymore Excuses and lack of evidence from these so called developers that either has Much ability to fund the necessary minimum $10M private funds into the hotel project
In order to qualify for this state tax assistance under the Iowa
Reinvestment Act.
Hey Robin Anderson and Dalena Barz…your not business smart so please be quiet. Otherwise maybe businesses should pull out of the chamber and not do business with Alpha Dog media.
Barz should concentrate on lowering her over priced radio spots in a fragmented market. Anderson should just quit all together for the damage she’s done to the Chamber.
When certain radio personalities left out there, the station faltered and the ad rates should have dropped, but they didn’t. Businesses are not smart enough to figure it out. The “Joe Show” is a no show.
LOL thanks for checking in, HO. There was no faltering, other than in your dreams.
Have you listened to the Joe Show, falter description was being nice, very nice.
In your dreams. The clients listen, and they say he’s doing just fine.
for the prices of the ads, is “fine” good enough?
How many name changes has this radio group changed to? Seems like no company wants to keep it long in their portfolio even after years of controlling North Iowa air waves. Most companies have found new ways to advertise and promote or they are old dogs whom have no new tricks and wonder why their business hasn’t grown. Newspaper and radio are simple old school. Most of the management of these old media’s are 62+ in age. if your not tracking your advertising’s sales production, your a fool and I have some 8-track tapes to sell you CHEAP!.
Smarten up everyone. This was a BAD plan from the start and began unraveling almost immediately. This was ALL about the Hockey Association period. They pushed downtown businesses till they got their way. Simply NO ONE on the council has ANY business sense or background………recipe for disaster! Accumulated tax dollars MUST be developed from this small retail area and paid to the state to receive them back. BUT to receive them back, the taxes accumulated must reach a certain level…….not good.
Trout was a puppet, he got smart and cut the strings, leave him out of it.
I agree, Trout was a puppet. He was nothing more then a yes man. Great guy to talk to but was not the right guy for the job. Couldn’t do what he was paid to do and that was to make decisions for the city. His recommendations/decisions were by what others told him to do not his own, like a puppet.
Hey dumbasses, the city administrators job is not to make decisions about the direction of the city. The city administrator manages the day to day operations of the city under the direction of your elected city council.
Geezus this site finds the dumbest of the dumb in Northern Iowa.
a good Administrator, like the guy in Clear Lake, “leads” the organization. Trout simply did Eric Boomeyer’s bidding. In 10 years he achieved only mediocrity. Look at what Clear lake has done in the last 10 years; no comparison.
Dumbass, do you have a job? If so, is your job to do what your boss directs you to do or do you go off the cuff and do whatever you want? The City Administrators boss is the City Council. The City Administrators job is to carry out the day to day operations of the city under the direction of the city council. The city council wanted the River City Renaissance project, so the City Administrator did the day-to-day tasks required to progress the project.
Clear Lake hasn’t done much in the last 10 years either. Sure, they’ve accomplished more than Mason City..But heck, even Manly has accomplished more than Mason City in the last 10 years. Clear Lake also has a dwindling, aging population, and few meaningful employment prospects. This area either needs to start embracing the industries that we’re positioned to land (food processing, distribution) or do something about our improving our work force (which is aging and largely not educated).
I would hope the next administrator is more than just the mayor’s coffee boy and bouncer. Trout became those things but should have been much more. The influence of the chamber and their stool pigeon mayor was too much for him to bear, so he became their stooge. No one leads in this town because they know the true shot-callers will end their careers quick. Only when the the citizens run things will this town ever improve. All chamber puppets in city hall right now.
What has Clear Lake done in the last 10 years? That town is losing population too and also has few meaningful job opportunities. If it wasn’t for the state economic development department literally bringing them McKesson, would there be a single large employer added in 10 years?!?!
North Iowa residents need to pull their heads out of their arses and accept why employers aren’t coming here and actually do something to change that.
With your explanation of what the administrator does or should I say how he gets his directive, Mason City should save the $150,000 a year and not go with an administrator. Cut out the middle man, the City ran fine for a 140 years without one. You said he does what he’s told, like a puppet, by the elected council. By the way, what’s his recommendations on this hotel fiasco have to do with the day to day operations of the City? With that being asked, whats the City and State doing getting involved, by funding, with a private business ?
Hey Dummy, it’s not ‘my explanation’ of the job. That is what city administrators do. Do you have a job? If so, do you do what your boss tells you or do you do whatever you want? The city council is the city administrators boss.
The hotel is private investment. The city and state aren’t funding it. Gawd this site finds the dumbest of the dumb.
When the hotel is getting money from the state and city how is that a private investment? That money is generated from taxes, taxes that are paid by you and me and anyone else who works in this town and state. Yes, the council does hire an administrator. The administrator is hired to run the day to day business of the city and make informened recommendations and decisions to the council about city business. The council says this is the direction we want to go, we hired you to get us there, tell us what is the best route for us to get there.
The hotel is receiving nothing from the state and is receiving a SMALL percentage of the total construction cost as TIF financing. 75%+ is private equity in the hotel. A pretty good deal for the city if you consider they leverage $10M in state funds by structuring $3M in TIF funds for the hotel (TIF is LARGELY repaid by the hotel and mall operator). A very good deal.
I am projecting that MC will have a field of finalists for the CA position, most of whom have been terminated from at least one position or are not actively working in the field. What a great headline: “5 finalists and 3 are not actively employed in the field, after being fired”. Others will be candidates that have applied for 10 jobs in the last 5 years, indiscriminately. This demonstrates that they are not looking at MC as anything other than a attempt to try and get back into the field.
We will be waiting to see this list, if it is ever produced, and we’ll do a thorough check on them all.
Who do you think you are kidding Marquardt? Your sources are no better than the gossip that runs around town. We hear what you print long before you are even in the loop.
If that is true why do you bother us with your bull shit opinion?
What? If its true why do you call it bullshit?
I hope the ones that have been fired by their previous Council’s will be well vetted. especially, when several will be people who apply for multiple positions each year. For example, would MC really hire someone who is not currently working after having been fired and has been named a finalist in 8 other cities in the last several years – while working for other cities?
Rush to judgement……..based on gossip and rumor fed by the puppet master Marquardt. You swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
so, you will or won’t support such a candidate? Because there will be not less than 2 in that mix. Let’s make sure we get this one right. Are you all in on a person who is coming off being fired and has a history of being a habitual “applicant”?
Told you what would happen. Fake City Council lies to the taxpayers and are finally caught.
ya trout said no new taxes to pay for it, but but use monies that are earmarked for other projects and then say taxes are being raised to pay for those taxes not the hockey rink. politicians way of getting around it. where is the hockey club going to get 2 million and why hasn’t their voice been heard in all of this?? they got want to say a word and screw things up, they get a free rink, control of it (which is wrong) and a whole bunch of empty bleachers. who in the hell goes to watch hokey anyway.
Trout said “no property tax increase will result” well trout is gone and the promise is too. he bailed, he saw the future and didn’t want to be part of it .. he was the only smart person at city hall.
TIF revenues will be used and those are revenues that could have funded other projects that are being property tax supported. So, while the project isn’t directly a lean on the taxpayers, it most certainly is indirectly.
TIF revenue CANNOT be used for other projects. Its the project itself that GENERATES the TIF funds. Without the project, there physically are no funds!!!!!!
Tif CANNOT be used to fund ‘other projects’. The money doesn’t exist without a physical improvement. Tif leverages the increase in tax liabilities created by a improvement. Without a improvement, the tax liability doesn’t exist and therefore neither does the money.
I have an idea, lets all write a letter to each of the IEDA board members and tell them how much we DONT want this to happen and they can keep their (our) money.
Mason City would be best off to cut their losses and let this fiasco fail.
(The only reason an outsider (me) is commenting on this topic is I may be moving to MC within the next couple of years.)
Downtowns are dying everywhere, not just MC and MC made a colossal blunder isolating what was left of the downtown by the ridiculous placement of the mall which cut Federal in half.
Throwing good money after bad by trying to prop up a decayed area (downtown) is backward thinking. Growth is to the West; invest there.
Of course the utterly inept MC city government couldn’t manage the affairs of Hutchins, Iowa, population 25 effectively, let alone MC.
Northiowatoday.com serves a purpose in that it doesn’t whitewash MC public affairs like the Globe; MC residents can be glad they have Marquart around.
Do you travel?!?! You say Downtowns are dying everywhere?!?!? Are you insane?!?!!! Downtowns everywhere are being invigorated! Check out Des Moines. Check out Ames. To name just two.
No. I live in a ****** cave. For every 2 downtowns that are being rehabilitated, there are 20 that are rotting away statewide.
Most of these dunks have been elected into their positions by is, the public. Money just pissed down our leg. Even more so if it never gets started or finished. That money could have been used as an investment, so to speak. Something to lure good company’s and good jobs and good people to the area. In the end, nothing but wasted time, energy and above all, wasted city money.
Mason City would be better off if we kept Robin Anderson and the chamber out of it. They don’t speak or work for the citizens.
and Dalena Barz
Just kill the whole thing and write it off. Dump the worthless City Council and start over.
TIF TIF will STEAL your hard earned money sooner or later ! Sniff sniff !
??? TIF Funds don’t exist without a physical improvement. The increase in tax liabilities created by an improvement generate TIF funds.
TIF isn’t ‘stealing’ anybody’s money. TIF doesn’t exist without an improvement to generate the TIF dollars.
It’s a hard concept for most to understand, I get that. You clearly do not understand TIF funds and would be better served to keep quiet.
Is that David Lee Roth or Michael Jackson wearing that fake pearl necklace?
This project has been a cluster f**K from the get go.
First, hundreds of thousands of dollars for a parking ramp that will never exist.
150 thousand to Gatehouse then booted out.
MCYH pledging money they don’t have& never will and wanting complete control.
Numerous others Like Robin Anderson, Dalena Barz wanting their pice of the pie.
And the “Say Yes” group led by nice smiling but clueless & ignorant Loni Dirksen.
Throw in the likes of Eric Bookmeyer (worst Mayor ever) and Philip Chodur, (notorious failure and flim-flam man) and this is what you end up with.
This would be funny as hell, were it not so embarassing adn costing MC taxpayers so much money for nothing.
AMEN!
What does the acronym MCYH stand for? Thank you.
Mason City Youth Hockey
Matt Chizek from the credit union was involved here too.
How about a story that an $85 million project led by the Clear Lake City Administrator now employs 230 full-time, while MC has struggled with a hotel development project for 4 years
Did that story, and gave the credit due. Blame the Fake News Globe Gazette for acting like the Ren. Project is as big as McKesson.
No problem with your coverage. It was meant for others. I’m not optimistic they will get a good hire for CA.
now that’s funny right there, I don’t care who you are