Corbett, Swore and Shields stand for the purchase of Crowne Plaza; could cause public 'firestorm,' mayor says

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor Ron Corbett and council members Chuck Swore and Justin Shields told a midafternoon news conference that it made sense for the city to look at buying what has been a struggling Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel now as the city builds a new Event Center convention center and upgrades the U.S. Cellular Center arena around it.

Swore said the city has bought other private property in the past, and he pointed to the former Sinclair meatpacking plant, which the city purchased in early 2007. Now flood-damaged, the Sinclair plant is being demolished with federal disaster funds, and the city will get $18 million -- nine times what the city paid -- for it because it can no longer be used.

Swore said the purchase of the hotel, if it comes to pass, will be as good a use of city dollars as was the purchase of the Sinclair plant.

In recent weeks, city officials have suggested that the hotel might be purchased for $3 million, an amount apparently on the high end of the city's expectations.

Corbett acknowledged that the city will need to put money into the hotel to revitalize the 30-year-old building should the city own it. He talked about renovating the hotel's front as the city builds the new Event Center right next door on what is now Third Street NE.

John Frew, the city's Event Center consultant, said he was recommending that the city buy the hotel. Frew noted that the city and the hotel have several entangling agreements – the city owns the land on which the hotel sits, for instance – that has made it difficult to sell the hotel. CWCapital Asset Management of Washington, D.C., owns the hotel, which it bought at a sheriff's sale in December 2009.

It is managed by a private firm and likely will be managed by a private firm if the city purchases it.

Corbett said the announcement of the city's interest in purchasing the hotel had the potential of creating a “firestorm” of public reaction not unlike he said he has seen with the plan to close a stretch of Second Avenue SE and with the idea to spend $540,000 on an anti-tip guard to protect residents from their city-issued Yardy carts.

Patrick DePalma, chairman of the city's Five Seasons Facilities Commission, said the city hoped to retain the Crowne Plaza flag on the hotel or to obtain one of equal or better caliber. He said that might include Doubletree, Hilton and Westin.