KCRag Forum

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1092367.html

Finally some exciting new development news.  Apparently the Savoy has been purchased by the Hoeltze Hotel family who intend to put it through a $25 mil renovation into a five star boutique.  Sounds like they aim for it to be the highest end hotel in town. 

Finally the old gal will be able to hold her head high.  Thank god they didn't follow through with the plan a few years back to turn it into a courtyard by marriott. 

Terrific news! I like the Savoy, but it could really use a facelift badly. Hopefully this will end up being an iconic hotel for downtown.

LenexatoKCMO wrote: http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1092367.html

Finally some exciting new development news.  Apparently the Savoy has been purchased by the Hoeltze Hotel family who intend to put it through a $25 mil renovation into a five star boutique.  Sounds like they aim for it to be the highest end hotel in town. 

Finally the old gal will be able to hold her head high.  Thank god they didn't follow through with the plan a few years back to turn it into a courtyard by marriott. 

That sounds great. Will be nice to have another high-quality hotel downtown. Also, interesting that Hoeltze relocated his family here - that's always nice to hear.

The article mentioned that Funk can still veto the TIF request until Thursday.

I also like that he is going to do it without flying one of the national flags.  I would hate to see the restaurant turn to a menu formulated by the scientists at the Hilton corporate kitchen lab. 

I just hope they incorporate some nice street and lot scaping in the area. 

Not so sure about relocating the entrance to the alley (or more likely, parking lot).

I stayed here a couple of years ago.  Around the corner from my room were rooms and halls that didn't look like they'd been used 50 years.  Interesting place.

Voted against by the Funk.

This is a challenging spot for the hotel. It opens up to a window into the sea of parking to the north, though hopefully connections southward and westward can improve so it doesn't feel like such an island. Great news.

Thank God.  I have some brutally terrible cell phone pics I'll post in a few.

DaveKCMO wrote: http://thekansascitypost.com/2009/03/ho ... -grab.html

Yeah - just what I want, the KC city council engaging in real estate price fixing - that will encourage oodles more DT investment.  &&&&

God I hope the council has the votes to override village idiot's veto. 

I wish them luck.  THEY WILL NEED IT.

Historic Tax credits?  This is not located in St Louis, tifs?  Yea right, Downtown?  it’s not on the east side, More hotel rooms? it’s another small hotel that people think will delay the construction of a convention hotel (even though Downtown needs about 3000 more hotel rooms).

Funk will ask them to build this hotel at 39th and Troost and put at least 35% of any profits toward the KCMO School District to prove they don’t hate black people.

GRID wrote: More hotel rooms?

They are existing rooms - If anything, I suspect the overall DT capacity would be reduced with room enlargement. 

DaveKCMO wrote: http://thekansascitypost.com/2009/03/ho ... -grab.html

I liked how they credited the Star article to Nick Collison.

AJoD wrote: I liked how they credited the Star article to Nick Collison.

Now that he is playing in OKC, I am sure he is much more able to stay up on regional development news. 

Did Mark really write that?!?! Let's ask the seller to reduce his asking price? Come on now! Support the TIF or don't support the TIF, but let's have some business sense here that having a third party request a price decrease on a private sale is just ridiculous.  

LenexatoKCMO wrote: They are existing rooms - If anything, I suspect the overall DT capacity would be reduced with room enlargement. 

Yea, but they will be added to the list of subsidized hotels downtown.  I don’t know the financial details.  Sounds like a great plan to keep an existing, historic property highly used.

I also think downtown desperately needs a convention hotel.

Regardless, I just get this feeling that the city has prematurely turned its back on Downtown and getting any major projects done downtown, be it new construction or renovation, will be extremely difficult now.  

Developers are just not welcome in KC right now.  I think that has been well documented by the mayor and the people that voted him in.

Yes I really wrote that.  The point I'm trying to make is that both sides of deals in this town settle on a price based on what they think they can get out of the taxpayers.  I don't feel it's right for sellers to reap profit on the backs of taxpayers.  The property is worth what it's worth.  Not what it's worth with potential subsidies.  Just my opinion, which as we all know everybody has one.

markf wrote:  The property is worth what it's worth.  Not what it's worth with potential subsidies.  

Those two statements are incompatible.  If it is "worth what it is worth" than that worth, by definition includes its potential redevelopment value. 

Is it just the ten years that offends you?  If the owner had gotten approval and turned it around to someone who was going to do something with it for an increased profit two days later would you have been just as offended?  Would it be better if owners who secure TIF are unable to transfer it and projects become illiquid and die on a regular basis?  Allowing transfer offers far better odds of the project actually getting done. 

LenexatoKCMO wrote: Those two statements are incompatible.  If it is "worth what it is worth" than that worth, by definition includes its potential redevelopment value. 

Is it just the ten years that offends you?  If the owner had gotten approval and turned it around to someone who was going to do something with it for an increased profit two days later would you have been just as offended?  Would it be better if owners who secure TIF are unable to transfer it and projects become illiquid and die on a regular basis?  Allowing transfer offers far better odds of the project actually getting done. 

I believe when you factor in the value of subsidies in the sale price, you dilute the effect of those subsidies.  It becomes a zero sum game.  TIF and tax abatement amounts are calculated in part based on acquisition costs.  So the seller (more often his savvy realtor or attorney) factors that in and jacks up the price.  So the seller gets more money based on the fact that his property is in disrepair.  That just doesn't seem fair to me.  If I'm the only one that feels that way, so be it.  Wouldn't be the first time.