Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Danielle Flasher was sworn in to a seat on Warren City Council by District Judge Raymond Zydonik at the outset of Monday’s council meeting. Flasher will take the seat recently vacated by Joe Michaels

A proposal for a boutique hotel along the riverfront appears to be dead as the Warren County Council on Monday terminated an agreement that had committed $2 million in state grant money to the project.

HIY, Inc., the owner of the riverfront building at the base of Liberty St., had entered into agreements with the city both for the funding and for dedicated parking for the hotel.

City Manager Nancy Freenock said that the firm was unsuccessful in obtaining matching funds for the state dollars and informed the city in an email last week it wished to terminate both agreements.

She recommended Council take that action “since the boutique hotel will not come to fruition at this time.”

Council ultimately approved that action and the plan detailed by staff was to reallocate $400,000 of that to Dewboi Properties, the firm proposing a hotel on Liberty St. and $600,000 to the city for projects at the fire station.

In addition to terminating this agreement, council approved two additional actions to go after new state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program dollars.

Freenock proposed to seek $5 million for the riverfront as well as $1 million on behalf of the Warren County Development Association for improvements to the PNC Bank Building on the corner of Second Ave. and Liberty St.

She told council that these applications are often funded at lower levels than requested so she’s hoping to secure $1.5 million for the riverfront.

“If the city is awarded more than we can use,” she said, “we have the ability to subgrantee it to other projects.”

For the PNC Building project, Freenock said the proposal was for a full renovation of the second and third floor for the creation of a workforce and community training center.