Cedar Rapids council approves joint venture by two Iowa firms to run convention center, arena and hotel

CEDAR RAPIDS – The City Council last night voted to hire a North Liberty firm and an Ames firm that have joined forces to manage what will be the city's renovated Five Seasons Hotel and renovated U.S. Cellular Center and the city's new convention center.

The much-expressed sentiment from council members was that the geographic closeness of the firms, Kinseth Hospitality Cos. of North Liberty and VenuWorks of Ames, would make them easily accessible to City Hall and make them want to invest and care about the Cedar Rapids facilities.

“You could feel it in their hearts,” council member Monica Vernon, a member of the City Hall evaluation team, said of the two firms that teamed up to compete for the city contract.

VenuWorks is well known in Cedar Rapids. It has been managing the city's U.S. Cellular Center arena, the Paramount Theatre and the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. The firm's contracts at The Paramount and ice arena will continue and the arena contract will end as the new joint contract with Kinseth for the arena, convention center and hotel begins.

Kinseth's spokesman last night was Bruce Kinseth, the firm's executive vice president and a NCAA national wrestling champ for the University of Iowa in 1979. Council member Chuck Swore said Kinseth told him that a city official could call Kinseth at 5 a.m. and he would be in Cedar Rapids at 6 a.m.

“That's not going to happen if you're from Chicago or New York,” said Swore, who also sat on the evalution committee.

John Frew, the city's consulting project manager for the convention center, arena and hotel projects, told the council last night that seven entities submitted proposals to manage the arena, hotel and/or the convention center, five were judged “responsive,” three were picked to interview and one of the three dropped out. Starwood Hotels and Resorts, White Plains, N.Y., which calls itself “one of the world's largest hotel and leisure companies,” interviewed but was not chosen by the City Hall evaluation team or, last night, by the City Council.

Frew said Sheraton has expressed an interest in having its name on the renovated Five Seasons Hotel as have DoubleTree by Hilton and Radisson. One ranking service rates Sheraton “upper upscale” and  DoubleTree, Radisson and the hotel's former flag, Crowne Plaza, “upscale.” Frew said Sheraton has expressed the most interest followed by DoubleTree and Radisson.

After last night's meeting, Steve Peters, VenuWorks' president, said the renovated U.S. Cellular Center arena will have a new “allure” and “sizzle” even if it is only adding a few more seats. It will remain smaller in size than arenas in Des Moines and Moline, but a medium-size arena can book and fill up more concerts than a large arena, he said.

Kinseth Hospitality operates more than 45 hotels and 10 chain-affiliated restaurants in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Wyoming. However, the firm does not yet manage an upscale, full-service hotel like the Five Seasons Hotel, Frew noted last night.

“This will be a feather in their cap,” council member Vernon said.

Kinseth called it a “great opportunity” for his firm.

“It's going to be our flagship hotel,” he said.