Future of Iowa's Honey Creek Resort uncertain after missed deadline

The deadline a Polk County judge imposed on Achieva Enterprises to reopen Honey Creek Resort has come and gone. Now the question is whether the property can even reopen in 2026.

Lawyers for Achieva, the contract operator of the only state-owned resort in Iowa, wrote in a court brief for a hearing Monday, March 16, that the current situation between their clients and the Iowa Department of Administrative Services has deteriorated. They say the state's position now resembles the punchline of a classic joke defining “chutzpah” as “killing your parents and then begging for mercy because you are an orphan.”

The parallel, they claim: The department prevented Achieva from reopening and now seeks permission to terminate the contract because Achieva missed the court's March 12 deadline for reopening.

The Hendersons reacted by threatening, during the recorded call, to close the resort. Department officials said they needed to protect state property and moved to abrogate Achieva's contract and take over the resort, shutting it down and locking the Hendersons out.

The couple sued and late testified their closure threat was an expression of frustration in the heat of the moment, not an actual plan.

Farrell granted the temporary injunction against the state on Dec. 26, finding the department acted without sufficient justification. It included the mandate that Achieva reopen Honey Creek no later than March 12.

Since then, the two sides have clashed over control of the resort. Achieva argued Monday that the department did not comply with the court’s order to provide immediate access to the property.Achieva attorney Mark Weinhardt said the instability of the situation adversely affects the company’s ability to attract customers, employees and vendors.

He suggested the court may want to consider appointing a “neutral party” to mediate the differences and see if there are ways the two sides can work together.

In asking for “a clear runway,” Weinhardt said Achieva needs 90 to 120 days of unfettered management of the resort in order to determine if it can reopen it for the 2026 holiday season or sometime in 2027.

Farrell pointed out that he had set the March 12 deadline based on representations by Achieva about how long it would need to get the resort back up and running, and said the company is “not anywhere close.”

But Achieva's lawyers said in court documents that the state "wants Achieva out of the resort by any means necessary. So the state has done everything it can, large and small, to impede Achieva, and to signal that it will continue doing so. As a result, Achieva cannot reopen the resort.”

“Something must be done to break the logjam,” they wrote. “That something is this: The Court must make clear that compliance with the injunction is not optional, and the state will not be rewarded for bad behavior by being given what it wants. If the state knows that the injunction will not be lifted, but will instead be enforced, it will have to decide whether to let the resort languish or cease impeding Achieva. The state will choose the latter, which is in the mutual interest of the parties. Enforcement of the injunction will also provide Achieva the certainty necessary to resume resort operations.”

State accuses Achieva of 'smoke and mirrors'

Assistant Attorney General Nicholas J. Kilburg told the court that talk of a “clear runway” was nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” and that Achieva is essentially asking for unlimited time to reopen the resort ? something he said the company has not shown any inclination to do.

Kilburg pointed out that Achieva has removed a small-scale trackless train it had at the resort as well as the employee time clock, signs he said indicate that the company is not putting forth a good-faith effort to reopen.

The attorney general’s office contends in court documents dated Feb. 26 that Achieva is making no actual progress toward reopening the resort and that Achieva’s directors of operations and quality control have admitted being unaware of any plans to hire staff or resume operations.

“These admissions, combined with the total lack of progress, justify dissolving the temporary injunction and allowing the state to proceed with its termination of the Concessionaire agreement,” the motion to strike down the injunction says.

The state's filing also reiterated its contention that it has spent substantial effort and money to ameliorate the effects on the resort of neglect by Achieva. The company vehemently denies the allegation, saying it is the state that has caused damage to the resort by, among other things, failing to prepare it for the winter months.

Farrell gave no timeline Monday for a ruling.

Honey Creek's troubled history

Envisioned as the result of a drive for state resort parks then-Gov. Tom Vilsack launched in 2000, the $60 million Honey Creek Resort was funded in large part by tax-exempt state bonds. But the project, which opened in 2008, never became a premier Iowa vacation spot. The Legislature spent another $33 million to pay off the outstanding bonds before turning Honey Creek's management over to Delaware North Cos. in June 2016.

Under its contract, Delaware North was supposed to pay the state a portion of its profits after Honey Creek’s annual revenues hit $7 million. With the resort's debt paid off, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources projected the deal could be worth millions to the state.

But revenues and occupancy never achieved that level and plunged after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Iowa in 2020. Delaware North opted out of its contract in 2022, and the Hendersons and Achieva took over the following year.

Source: msn.com