Hotel Chauncey will close on Sunday and hotelVetro has already closed. Like SpareMe Bowl & Arcade, which will close its doors for the final time on Wednesday night, the two downtown Iowa City hotels are owned by Hawkeye Hotels. The closure of the two hotels was first reported by Corridor Business Journal on Monday.
Hawkeye Hotels is a property development and management company located in Coralville.
CBJ’s Annie Smith Barkalow reported that Hawkeye Hotels received eviction notices for all three businesses Hawkeye Hotels from GreenState Credit Union on Nov. 18. Earlier this year, GreenState foreclosed on the Chauncey, where SpareMe and Hotel Chauncey are located, and Plaza Towers, the Ped Mall building that was home to hotelVetro, along with three other properties owned by Marc Moen and business associates.
The Chauncey, Plaza Towers and another Ped Mall building, Park@201, were scheduled to be sold as a single lot at a Johnson County Sheriff Office’s auction on Nov. 18, but failed to sell when no one met the minimum set bid of $24 million.
Heather Soseman, SpareMe’s general manager, told Little Village on Monday she was informally told on Nov. 18 that the bowling alley and arcade was closing, and received official notice from Hawkeye Hotels the following day, but was not given the reason for the closure.
“I was utterly shocked, and beyond disappointed,” Soseman said.
Hotel Chauncey, which has 51 rooms, opened in 2019, when the Chauncey building opened. The 56-room hotelVetro opened in 2006, at the same time Plaza Towers opened at the Linn Street end of the Ped Mall. Both the Chauncey and Plaza Towers are mixed-use buildings, home to other business as well as residential units. The best-known tenants in both buildings — FilmScene in the Chauncey and Bread Garden in Plaza Towers — both own their spaces, and are not facing any changes.
Along with the Chauncey, Plaza Tower and Park@201, GreenState also foreclosed on the Ped Mall building at 118 E College St and the parking lot adjacent to the downtown Starbucks. The parking lot was originally part of the auction lot for the Nov. 18 sheriff’s sale, but was removed before the auction and will be sold separately. In August, FilmScene announced it had “partnered with Resilient Sustainable Future for Iowa City to purchase the building at 118 E. College St,” where its first cinema has been located since 2013.
Little Village reached out to Hawkeye Hotels for comment on the closures of SpareMe, Hotel Chauncey and hotelVetro, but did not receive an immediate response.
