Mason City mayor talks about downtown hotel moving forward once again

MASON CITY — Mason City’s mayor says he’s happy the city has found another developer for the hotel portion of the River City Renaissance project.

The city approved a purchase agreement last month with Kinseth Hospitality that outlines the process of constructing a $15 million extended stay hotel that will connect with Music Man Square via the downtown skywalk. The agreement comes after the city in May cut ties with former developer David Ratchie, a process that also included the city taking ownership of the mall.

Bill Schickel says Kinseth Hospitality has a proven track record of success.   “They of course have a national reputation along with two hotels here in north Iowa. We’re very excited about moving forward. They are on schedule. We expect groundbreaking in the spring on that hotel.”

Schickel says the recent development downtown can be attributed to the Renaissance project.  “I really think it’s the reason we’ve seen 200 new housing units downtown, we’ve seen additional business development downtown, and now with the city taking over ownership of the mall, we’re seeing great interest in the mall there. We’ve got interest in establishing recreation opportunities in there, including pickleball and a bowling alley, and some other things along those lines, and developers have expressed interest in that.”

  Schickel made his comments during this week’s “Ask the Mayor” podcast which you can hear by clicking here