Mayor James Announces Kansas City Convention Center Hotel Development

The new UMKC conservatory will be constructed in the space to the lower left of the illustration, immediately south of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Rendering is courtesy of HNTB Corporation.

800-room Hyatt will be three blocks from Downtown Arts Campus

Kansas City Mayor Sly James this week announced the development of a $300 million, 800-room convention headquarters hotel across from the Kansas City Convention Center, and a short walk from the site of Phase I of UMKC’s Downtown Campus for the Arts.

“Kansas City needs a major downtown convention hotel, and has for several years,” James said. “America has fallen in love with Kansas City and wants to have its conventions and large meetings here. The proposed agreement is the right development at the right location with the right hotel operator, and now is the right time to do it.”

The proposed hotel would be built on property at 16th and Wyandotte streets, directly across from the Kansas City Convention Center’s Grand Ballroom.

The University of Missouri Kansas-City Conservatory of Music and Dance Jazz Quartet entertained guests before the May 11 announcement, which further exemplified the revitalization opportunities of downtown Kansas City. The new hotel would only be a few streets away from the proposed Downtown Campus for the Arts, the future home of the UMKC Conservatory. The arts campus will cover a full city block bounded by Broadway, Central, 17th and 18th streets, directly south of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, and takes the university literally into the heart of Kansas City. The new UMKC Conservatory will be constructed in the space to the lower left of the illustration,  immediately south of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

“We’re glad to have the Conservatory as a neighbor,” said Mike Burke, civic leader and member of the project team of Burke Swerdling & Associates. “It’s a great endeavor.”

The convention headquarters hotel will feature approximately 75,000 square feet of meeting, banquet and pre-convene space, 9,000 square feet of garden/terrace space, 15,450 square feet of other retail, restaurant, bar and lounge space, a 9,913-square-foot recreational facility and 450 to 500 parking spaces. Construction on the hotel is slated to begin in early 2016 and be completed in 2018.


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