The City Council on Monday voted to buy the sprawling building for $10.1 million in a move described as a way to get the project completed when full private financing could not be obtained.

Councilwoman Lydia Schuur was absent from the otherwise unanimous vote to buy the building.

There was some public opposition to the purchase.

“This is a bad deal,” Joe McCarville, of Fort Dodge, told the elected officials moments before they voted. “This doesn’t seem proper at all.”

He described the purchase as a “miscarriage of justice.”

Councilman Dave Flattery said voting for the sale was not an easy decision.

“I feel like we have to see this project move forward,” he said. “We just can’t afford to have this project stall out.”

Councilman Cameron Nelson described the purchase as the least amount of risk needed to make the pavilion project a reality.

“We have to be creative and take a little more risk than other people,” he said.

The council bought the pavilion from 3 & 1 Properties, of Fort Dodge, for $10,117,066.

After taking ownership, the city will lease the building to its original developer, M & M LLC, of Ankeny.

The city will make an initial $2.6 million payment, with the rest of the money to be paid at the closing of the sale. City Manager David Fierke said the local government has that money from a previous tax increment financing bond issue.

The city will borrow about $9.5 million to get the rest of the money for the purchase.

Fierke said the city’s property tax payers will not be paying off that debt.

“There are many safety nets before it gets to the point where taxes are needed,” he said.

According to Fierke, lease payments from M & M LLC, will pay off the debt.

If that revenue stream is not sufficient, M & M LLC will have to come up with the money from additional sources, he said.

If the money cannot be obtained from the company, the city will use sales tax revenue generated at Corridor Plaza to pay the debt, he said.

If that doesn’t work, tax increment financing, essentially increased property tax revenue from Corridor Plaza, would be used.

Fierke said homeowners and other property tax payers would have to foot the bill only if all of those sources of money were not enough.

The pavilion, located on the South 25th Street side of Corridor Plaza, will house basketball and pickleball courts, plus a restaurant. It is expected to open this spring.

Fierke said the pavilion concept has been part of the strategy for redeveloping the former Crossroads Mall area since 2018.

“What we determined was we needed to do something to bring people to the mall that is not shopping,” he said. “We thought that was the key thing to put in Corridor Plaza.”

He said M & M LLC has two similar sports pavilions in more urban areas that are successful.

“We’re an untested market for this, which is part of the reason financing didn’t come in,” he said.

“We took an approach that we can’t just let it stop,” he added.

McCarville said if the pavilion was a good financial deal, private financing would have been available.

“Banks won’t lend money for it because they don’t think there’s a profit-and-loss statement that makes sense,” he said.

“I am strongly opposed to this,” he said. “I think it is a miscarriage of justice and a miscarriage of all your duties.”

McCarville received a round of applause from some members of the audience when he concluded his remarks.