Legal wrangling over Chateau on Lake of the Ozarks headed back to Camden County Circuit Court

A lawsuit brought by Four Seasons Marina Rentals Inc. that questions the legality of the decision by the City of Osage Beach to extend to John Q. Hammons a tax increment finance district for Chateau Lake of the Ozarks is headed back to Camden County Circuit Court.

The Missouri Supreme Court denied Four Seasons' request for change of venue Wednesday, Nov. 18. The case is scheduled for a hearing Dec. 14 in Camden County.

Attorney John Curran of Osage Beach filed the lawsuit Dec. 7, 2007, the day after the city approved a $3.7 million TIF for the Hammons development.

Originally scheduled to open for business the summer season of 2010, the project was delayed, at least in part, by the pending legal dispute over the TIF.

Hammons in 2007 predicted the hotel would generate about $25 million in annual revenue. The City of Osage Beach keeps 2 percent of the 7.225 percent base sales tax rate, so the hotel holds the potential to boost city coffers by $500,000 per year during times of normal economic conditions.

The $98 million resort has been design similar to Branson’s Chateau on the Lake, which Hammons Hotels founder John Q. Hammons opened in 1996. Chateau on Lake of the Ozarks would feature a spa, 320 rooms and more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space.

The property Hammons purchased for the hotel is surrounded on three sides by the lake and is about one mile from the Osage Beach Premium Outlets. It would be visible from the Grand Glaize Bridge.

(The Springfield Business Journal contributed to this story)