CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The city must decide quickly on an ownership option for the now-closed Five Seasons Hotel so it can begin a $20-plus-million renovation of the property and construction of a $10-million, 500-space parking ramp across First Avenue East from it, Mayor Ron Corbett said Friday.

All this will happen in tandem with the start of the city’s $76.5-million Convention Complex project, which will feature an upgraded U.S. Cellular Center arena and a new convention center next to the hotel and arena.

Corbett said the parking ramp, which is proposed to sit on what now is a parking lot on First Avenue SE between Theatre Cedar Rapids and the railroad tracks, will be connected via skywalk over First Avenue to a new piece of the skywalk system that will run in front of the hotel and the new convention center.

Corbett said the cost of the parking ramp would be rolled into whatever financing package emerges to pay for the hotel renovation. This $30-million-plus cost will be over and above the $75.6-million cost of the Convention Complex project.

The City Council agreed to buy the hotel for $3.2 million from its creditors in November to make sure it was fixed up as the Convention Complex project was being done. The city will take ownership of the hotel on March 7.

Corbett said the city has explored many options with the hotel, including demolishing the 31-year-old, 275-room building and starting over. Building new would cost twice as much as a renovation, he said.

Now, he said, the city seems down to two options: creating a non-profit corporation to take on debt to pay for the renovation and parking ramp with the projected profits from the reopened hotel used to pay off the debt; or selling the hotel to a local group of investors. Local investors once owned the hotel, the mayor noted.

Corbett said the parking ramp is needed, in part, because two private parking ramps are being demolished to make way for the convention center. The city also is demolishing its flood-damaged First Street Parkade nearby.

Building a parking ramp across First Avenue East from the hotel is a return to a past idea. The city had intended to build its Intermodal Transit Facility with a 500-space parking ramp on the site back in the early 2000s before changing its mind. Subsequently, the Intermodal has been proposed for other sites and has yet to be built.

Corbett said the city has many hotel management companies eager to operate the hotel once it reopens in November 2012, and he said several hotel chains have inquired about attaching their flag to the renovated hotel. Signs from the Crowne Plaza chain came down on Thursday when the hotel closed for renovation.

The hotel, Corbett said, will be a moneymaking venture. Profits can pay off debt incurred to renovate the building, he said.