City will fund feasibility study for possible hotel, convention center

by Marianne Gasaway

The Clear Lake City Council has agreed to spend up to $9,000 for a marketing and feasibility report for a hotel and convention center in the community.

City Administrator Scott Flory told the Council he has had discussions with an unnamed developer about such a facility and called the project “potentially significant.”  He noted the developer has had 30 or more successful projects, mostly located in the Midwest.  They include several in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. area.

“I can say clearly they have a well-established, proven track record, and (are) well-financed,” Flory told the Council.

Flory was asking the city to pay for the feasibility study on behalf of the developer, who made contact with the city through a broker in Iowa.  He estimated the work would take about 60 days.

In other business, the Council has accepted the certificate of completion for the 10,000 square foot expansion of the city’s Public Works facility. King Construction, of Clear Lake, was the general contractor for the $506,000 project.

In addition to providing additional space for city machinery, the building now provides offices for the city’s Parks & Recreation Department and Clear Lake Watershed Coordinator Jim Sholly.

The project also included paving improvements for the recycling drop boxes and driveway approach from 4th Avenue South; a storm water retention basin and storm water infrastructure; and relocating the bulk water fill station area on the

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west side of the facility.

The final value of the work completed on the project after the additions as well as deductions of liquidated damages for lack of timely completion was just over $597,000. With the Parks & Recreation Department moving to the Public Works facility, the council in the near future will consider a lease agreement between the city and the Clear Lake Historical Society for the former Parks & Recreation House located on North 8th Street.

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