Mason City council to meet Tuesday to consider terminating agreement with developer on downtown hotel

MASON CITY – Five years after a hotel was announced for downtown Mason City but has yet to materialize, the saga continues as the city council will consider terminating an agreement with a hotel developer who allegedly refuses to furnish vital documents.

The meeting was announced Monday afternoon and will be held Tuesday at 5 PM in the second floor conference room in City Hall. At this meeting, per a recommendation from City Administrator Aaron Burnett, the city council will once again consider whether to fire a hotel developer who loves to cash checks from Mason City taxpayers, but has yet to deliver the required multi-million dollar private investment in the form of a hotel that is required for the glorious Renaissance Project to commence. Mr. Burnett tells the council that G8 Development of San Diego is in default of its agreement with Mason City after it allegedly failed to turn in documents in connection to the on-going project, most notably bank financing proof. Therefore, he is recommending the City terminate its agreement with G8 Development and its owner Philip Chodur.

Back in December of 2017, the Mason City council approved an agreement with G8 Development, Inc. to build a hotel in the downtown in connection to the Renaissance Project. This was the second time the City got into business with Mr. Chodur (2013 was the first time); they dumped him back in March of 2017 for a developer – Gatehouse Capital’s David Rachie – who also gleefully submitted thousands in invoices to City Hall for payment before he was ousted by the Council and disappeared, much like parking ramp plans the City Council bought in connection to the project that cost taxpayers over $400,000.  That ramp, of course, will never be built, just like Rachie’s hotel, and probably like Mr. Chodur’s.

As NIT has reported for years, some citizens have always doubted this project would work out, and with this latest setback, some say the Renaissance is dead.  The project seemed far-fetched from the beginning to some, with a skywalk, an arena dominated by special interests, questionable developers, no-bid construction deals, millions in taxpayer-backed bonds that officials lied about, etc.  But NIT has learned that due to a special relationship between certain un-elected shot-callers in downtown Mason City who truly run the town and at least one top honcho with the Iowa Economic Development Authority, the project is not likely to be dead at all.  The City will most likely continue to search, like a small boy for his long lost puppy, for a hotel developer to enter into the mix.  Knowing that the City will pay for almost any invoice they may submit, the City and its un-elected puppetmasters are likely to dredge up someone willing to get into the game and this soap opera will drag on for years to come, making Mason City a punchline at watercoolers across the region.

Mr. Chodur threatened to sue Mason City after he was ousted for Rachie and Gatehouse.  He dropped the suit when the City Council brought him back on board last year.  Now, he seems to be thinking lawsuit again, as documents show his legal team at the Fitch Law Firm in San Diego is gearing up for a fight if the council sends him packing.

“This conduct by the City … is unacceptable,” a letter from Fitch to City Hall reads.  In the letter, Fitch seems to indicate that the City is bowing to pressure from the Iowa Economic Development Authority in asking for documentation from G8.