City of Hannibal turns over vacant hotel to new owner

A long closed Hannibal Motel may soon see new life thanks to action taken Tuesday by the City Council. Council approved the purchase of the former Bestway Hotel at 612 Mark Twain Avenue to Horizon Rentals. The city obtained the hotel at no cost and will sell it to Horizon Rentals for $2870.00. That covers the past due taxes on the property at the time the city took it over. It also covers the labor and materials costs incurred by the city to board up the property.

According to the deal approved by council, the property will carry covenants for 5 years and will have a 50 percent property tax abatement for 15 years. The property is currently not generating any property taxes.

The hotel had been closed since 2018, after it had been damaged by multiple fires over the last decade. A dead body was found there in March 2013

Horizons plans to redevelop the property into a functioning hotel. City Manager Lisa Peck said the project is estimated to generate just over a million dollars of new investment in that area. 

Council acted on the sale of several other smaller properties and the purchase of another. The city has plans to purchase the vacant lot at the corner of 4th and Broadway. The lost was the former home of a Wareco gas station. The city will pay a total of $10,000.00 for the lot with half coming from the parks fund and half from the Board of Public Works. The property is covered under the Petroleum Storage Tank Insurance Fund which will pay for the cost of the remaining environmental monitoring of the site. The property will be developed into a parking lot.

Council also approved an engineering contract with Klingner and Associates for the extension of Lakeside Drive into the Industrial Park on the west edge of town. The city has been awarded an $835,000 Governor’s Cost Share Grant for the project, but the $54,999.50 engineering cost is not reimbursable under the grant. The BPW will pay for this portion of the contract.