Mason City mayor says no other competitive bids for downtown hotel project

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City tomorrow night will hold a public hearing and then consider a development agreement for the hotel portion of the River City Renaissance project. City officials have finalized a development agreement with Gatehouse Mason City LLC for the construction of a hotel that would fulfill the private investment portion of the $39 million project being supported through the Iowa Reinvestment Act.

Mayor Bill Schickel, in a social media posting on Monday morning, says no other competitive proposals have been submitted for the project. “When a 30-day waiting period expired on Friday, the city had received no competing development proposals for the downtown Music Man Square hotel and conference center. State law requires that when we pass a preliminary development proposal like we did 30 days ago, we are required to give a time period for any other developer to submit a proposal that would be more advantageous, would be better for the taxpayers of Mason City.”

Schickel says the lack of other competitive proposals for the project shows the agreement the city has with Gatehouse is a good one. “No additional proposals came in, which indicates that our agreement with Gatehouse negotiated by our city staff is a solid proposal that the city council is expected to take up on Tuesday.”

The public hearing and the consideration of the agreement with Gatehouse will take place at the council’s meeting tomorrow night at 7 o’clock in the Mason City Room of the Public Library.