KCRag Forum

the hotel chains will probably just start things to compete with Airbnb

nomadcowatbk wrote:the hotel chains will probably just start things to compete with Airbnb

one site I saw said 24,000 hotel rooms are on the service already.

Yeah AirBNB is just another type of product, and a great option to have. The nature of hotel/hospitality industry is that it shuffles around and morphs into different products over time. Downtown KC needs rooms no matter the current state of what's hot in the industry. KC metro currently has about 35K rooms but downtown is (well was) below average. What will happen is just a geo shift of more in city and less in burbs (especially overbuilt airport) while maintaining about 35K rooms metro wide (then growing as metro grows).

My bet is that unless KC metro can support a lot more rooms next few years, a few airport hotels will be first to shut down before downtown hotels do.

Gaining downtown HQs is a factor too but the last two places I have worked downtown were national branch offices and every week there have been people from other cities visiting KC office (whether vendors or employees from other offices). Sometimes they had to stay at airport hotel if an event downtown. You don't _need_ HQs to fill up hotel rooms but helps.

earthling wrote: You don't _need_ HQs to fill up hotel rooms but helps.

I kind of agree with this statment. Take a look at the Twin Cities. They have tons of huge powerful companies like 3M, General Mills, Cargill, Best Buy, Polaris, United Healthcare and they are all scatered in suburban areas all over the twin cities. There are only a few big companies actually located in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis also has to compete with St Paul for HQ office space.

brewcrew1000 wrote:

earthling wrote: You don't _need_ HQs to fill up hotel rooms but helps.

I kind of agree with this statment. Take a look at the Twin Cities. They have tons of huge powerful companies like 3M, General Mills, Cargill, Best Buy, Polaris, United Healthcare and they are all scatered in suburban areas all over the twin cities. There are only a few big companies actually located in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis also has to compete with St Paul for HQ office space.

It makes a big difference - HQ vs branch office. If company has 30 branch offices and has a training seminar attended by 3 people from each office, that's 90 people coming to the HQ city. Conversely, the branch office city may only get a few people at a time visiting from the main office. That was the way my company in Houston worked. We did a good job when times were good at helping keep Houston's hotels fill. But only a few people ever ventured out at a time going to the outlying offices. Not much different than the hub and spoke airline system.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... rfelt.html

CrossHarbor Capital Partners LLC and Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners bought 2345 Grand for an undisclosed price. At 630,000 square feet, it's one of the area’s largest multitenant office buildings and is 73 percent occupied, including such tenants as law firms Lathrop Gage LLP and Armstrong Teasdale LLC.

They promise renovations to the building, which was built in 1977 as a regional headquarters for IBM. As part of what it called a “significant capital investment,” Lingerfelt will renovate the building’s lobby and lower-level common area, as well as the ground-floor retail space in an annex building at 2380 McGee St. The company also plans to upgrade fitness and tenant lounge areas.

Not sure how recent of a development this is. However, Delta puts their pilots up at the Westin Crown Center now.

Not really notable other than most airlines here put their pilots up near the airport. Using downtown hotels for flight crews is more of a bit city thing.

Has anyone been to the renovated Westin lobby restaurant? I've had dinner/drinks at the bar, but the dining room also got a makeover.

https://www.crowncenter.com/business/on ... ar-kitchen

earthling wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:31 pm

kboish wrote:The most interesting quote from the article is non-three light related.

Matt Zammar of Re/MAX Legacy, one of the area's leading condo agents, recently advised Winters that a developer plans at least one new condo tower in the Crown Center area.

Nice catch. Might post over in CC thread.

Interesting to see confidence in condo market returning, especially direct build rather than apt conversion. The Plaza condo market seems to be pretty healthy now.

Did this condo tower ever go anywhere? Did anyone here ever here anything more than a murmur?

I saw this posted on Reddit. I've been coming a different way to work this week so haven't seen whatever this person is talking about yet myself, but I thought maybe somebody here might know:

What are they doing to the tensegrity at 27th and main?
It's my favorite piece of public art in KC. I hope they are not removing it.

Map link to the specific sculpture: https://goo.gl/maps/ekMEoZgjGYSf1hUC8

Burnt End BBQ and Starbucks to open in the Milano space - aiming for late December opening.

https://www.crowncenter.com/news-releas ... own-center

Is about time that Milano is replaced, very 80s and never a particularly good restaurant. I wonder if 3 Pigs will remain with another BBQ place.

Is there a Starbucks type coffee place in crown center anywhere? Seems that is a good addition.

Honestly anything getting rid of Milano has to be an improvement.

The only coffee-centric spot is in the 2460 building across the street, past the fountains/plaza and hidden in one of the stepped office buildings. Panera, Sheridan's and Einstein all sell some types of coffee drinks, but you have to go to the Starbuck's outpost in the Westin to get anything other than a coffee or latte. They should do well.

Yeah the Westin lobby has a Starbucks but I think with their own pastries.

The Sheraton has a coffee place too as I recall.