As most people in Perry know, ownership of Hotel Pattee changed hands earlier this year, and one thing carrying over from one owner to the next is a development agreement with the City.

At the recent Perry City Council meeting, they approved the agreement with Maxwell Hospitality and owner Tom Maxwell, that will allow them to take advantage of a $155,000 forgivable loan over the next five years. City Administrator Sven Peterson explains, the loan was originally granted to previous owners, Jay and Denise Hartz, but they defaulted on it when they sold the hotel to Maxwell. However, Peterson says this isn’t like a typical loan default, as it can now carry over to the new ownership.

“The Hartzes originally had the agreement to help with a lot of the repair and maintenance of the building when they first took it over. This was able to allow them to do a lot of that deferred maintenance that had been kind of put off. So we recycled that money from the previous development agreement — which utilized tax increment financing — to take those funds and put it into a new development agreement with Maxwell Hospitality, the new owner of the hotel.”

The original loan was necessitated by a neglect in the maintenance of the hotel by the owners prior to the Hartzes. Peterson adds, the City felt it was important to keep the money devoted to Hotel Pattee, and they were happy to enter the new agreement with Maxwell.