Hyatt Crown Center to become Sheraton

[chingon]

The downtown Marriott, Westin Crown Center, and Hyatt all have very dated-looking lobbies.

I actually like the old Marriott Muehlebach lobby better than the lobby in the downtown Marriott tower.

The Westin CC lobby is awesome. I would really hate to see them change it. Its like the American with its perfect Scarface vibe.

[FangKC]

Prediction: In 30 years, the downtown Marriott will become a student dormitory for UMKC's Conservatory of Music and Dance.

[KC Sporting Life]

I actually like the old Marriott Muehlebach lobby better than the lobby in the downtown Marriott tower.

The lobby that they use on the West side of the building, or the original that faces Baltimore?  The original lobby is beautiful, it's a shame it isn't used any more. 

[FangKC]

Yes, the old lobby on the west side. It's beautiful and that part of the hotel complex is always empty and unused. Sad. It would be a good space for a restaurant or lounge.

[cknab1]

I am just happy that the Hyatt will no longer be in charge of Milano.  That is a beautiful restaurant that has been driven into the ground by cost cutting measures employed by the Hyatt.  We used to go there 2 or 3 times a week.  Now it is once a month if that.  The Hyatt drove the Golden Harvest Baking out of business when they first took over.  My wife noticed when she got her salads there after the Hyatt took over it was mostly the lettuce ribs.  We were told that the Hyatt kept the leaves for their salads and wasn?t worried about repeat business at the bakery.  After all it was just hotel travelers.  I guess they forgot about the thousands of Hallmarkers and workers from the two lawyers building.  After 3 months of this, the Bakery closed and the people disappeared over night.  We felt sorry for the workers, it wasn?t their fault.
At Milano, they keep the staff down to where they cannot provide good service.  They start to panic if a slightly larger than normal crowd starts to show up.  I actually heard staff tell a group of customers during the Irish Fest that service might be a little slow, they weren?t expecting a crowd.  Again, it is not the fault of the workers there, Corporate is just out of touch with what is going on.  I know Rusty Macy a little and I know his hands were probably tied but it is frustrating when you like the people that work there and they are not given a chance to to their jobs as they see fit.  Some Sundays they just have one person working in the bar and dinning area.  I don't know how many times I have seen groups of people in the last two years walk to the entrance to be seated but give up and leave because no one was there.

That place should be rocking every first Friday, but there is no one there.  It?s a shame and for that reason alone I?m happy that the Hyatt will no longer run the place.  I have no knowledge of how Crayola Caf? was doing, so no comment about that.

[anniewarbucks]

As a member of Our Lady Of Gadelupe Catholic Church here in Topeka, the Hyatt is a very huge piece of our history. It was July 17, 1981 that the loby of this hotel was filling up for a tea dance. Our very own Mariachi Estrellia was scheduled to perform for this dance. As they were walking across the second floor skywalk to their dressing room the skywalks collapsed. There were six members that made the trip to Kansas City. We had 4 of our parishioners die in the collapse with 2 surviving. One of the members had to stay home because of family concerns. One of the members that survived is still playing the violin in or church chior. She still can still tell you of the collapse. This was durring our annual Fiesta Mexicana with the group scheduled to perform the last night of the Fiesta. There was makeshift banners made to keep their deaths in everyones prayers. We now have a plaque on the corner of our church. There is also a memorial at the Topeka Performing Arts Center for these 4 girls. I wish that Hyatt or Sheritan would put a memorial up in the lobby of this hotel.

[loftguy]

Great suffering succotash!...........welcome back Annie!

[KC Sporting Life]

Yes, the old lobby on the west side. It's beautiful and that part of the hotel complex is always empty and unused. Sad. It would be a good space for a restaurant or lounge.

I couldn't agree more, and have exhausted my efforts trying to convince their management group of this.  The bar that faces Baltimore, just off that lobby, is a gem, and it's a shame it's been vacant for so long.

[KCPowercat]

There are still talks of reviving that.

[FangKC]

It's a shame that the management doesn't try and do something with the old Muehlebach portion of the hotel complex.

If the hotel rooms aren't needed, why not paint them and rent them out as low-cost offices for start-ups and small businesses that only need a desk, computer, and phone, and have shared office services, meeting rooms, etc.?  It could be a entrepeneur incubator space.

That old lobby is such a beautiful space and it's going to waste.

[loftguy]

It's a shame that the management doesn't try and do something with the old Muehlebach portion of the hotel complex.

If the hotel rooms aren't needed, why not paint them and rent them out as low-cost offices for start-ups and small businesses that only need a desk, computer, and phone, and have shared office services, meeting rooms, etc.?  It could be a entrepeneur incubator space.

That old lobby is such a beautiful space and it's going to waste.

If I remember right, the owners calculated that they would have to get nearly $2 per square foot (monthly) to do anything with that space and that was 12 to 15 years ago.

[FangKC]

Well, it appears that they missed the boat on the historic tax credits, which could have helped them renovate that space for individual office leasing, and still maintain the historic nature of the building.  It will be even less doable now with the changes in the Missouri incentives.

How much would it really cost to just repaint the rooms, put in efficient windows, and new carpeting?

This was one of the reasons downtown had so much trouble remaining dense and active, because for many years, a lot of buildings just sat empty.  No people to frequent restaurants, barbers, or copy places, etc.  Several hundred one-person offices might have helped sustain a small deli or take-out restaurant in that former bar space.

When all those old office and hotel buildings were sitting empty, more and more restaurants and small retail places closed, making it harder to lease newer fair-market office space in other buildings because tenants said there was little retail or activity. A big section of downtown was basically producing nothing for anyone.

The property owner may not make a huge profit on leasing that space, or might just break even, but having productive activity there benefits everyone downtown.

Those old hotel rooms could be used by a variety of independent workers: psychiatrist, or psychologist; a massage therapist, a chiropractor, a graphic designer, a computer programmer, a freelance photographer, an independent word processor, accountant, answering service, independent public relations person, event planner, technical writer, a realtor, insurance agent, decorator, private investigator, or independent consultants. Basically, anyone needing a place to have a desk, filing cabinet or two, computer, fax and phone.

It could also be used as temporary overflow space for downtown businesses running out of room and waiting for a lease to expire.

I think the guy who owns the former Stockyard Exchange building, Bill Haw, did something similar to this. He rents "as-is" space for $12 a foot to $17 a foot for completely renovated space.

Something of this nature could spawn a new startup company. Cerner and Garmin didn't even exist 30 years ago.

[loftguy]

You're absolutely right, Fang.

Too many commercial property owners in KC harm the marketplace, by holding out for the highest possible (or impossible) rents, in order to maximize the bank value of their holdings.  We've easily got a million square feet downtown that has sat vacant for as much as ten or more years, while the owner is waiting. 

One of my major peeves. 

Make it affordable for entrepreneurs, get it alive, grow this city!

[FangKC]

One only has to remember that two very large corporations were started in Kansas City by entrepeneurs as bare-bones operations. Joyce Hall started what would become Hallmark while staying at the downtown YMCA, and selling postcards out of a shoebox. Walt Disney started Laugh-O-Gram Studios here basically the same way--in the family garage.

Ewing Kauffman started Marion Labs out of his home.

Russell Stover Candies was started out of the Stover's home.

"We were at 1919 Grand in 1919 when I got my first private office. It just barely took in my old cherry rolltop desk and a swivel-spring chair. And there was room for a small chair for a visitor." -- From When You Care Enough, by Joyce Hall, 1979.

[FangKC]

Loftguy, I used to get irritated walking down Petticoat Lane to the old public library from my apartment on Quality Hill, and seeing those vacant retail spaces in the Commerce Arcade building, and across the street in the Harzfeld's Building. I think they were vacant for five years--at least--until that flower shop moved into one, and the KFC and Curves finally opened across the street.

All that time that they sat empty the owner was collecting no rent, and there was no retail activity around that area.  No benefit to anyone.  The same was true for that space that sat empty for a long time in Town Pavilion, on the NW corner of 12th and Main, until that restaurant occupied it briefly.

Sometimes you have to cut the rents to provide services to the neighborhood and keep things vital and busy.  No new tenant wants to move to a dead business district.

[trailerkid]

That thing has not been up to Hyatt quality in quite some time.

Ding ding ding.

Worst Hyatt I've ever seen. Good people, but the property isn't up to par. The lobby and all the crumby restaurants need (at least) $10+ million dropped on them. It's not 1989 anymore...

[mean]

Worst Hyatt I've ever seen.

I've stayed at a lot of Hyatts, and I'd agree that it's pretty bad, but there are / have been other properties in pretty serious need of renovation. The Hyatt formerly located in the St. Louis Union Station comes to mind.

[cknab1]

I stayed there a couple of years ago and was really amazed how bad it was.  I would have felt much better at just about any place else.  Wonder if they have upgraded it since.

[mean]

No, they switched flags to Marriot and the Hyatt moved to the defunct downtown Adam's Mark.

[KCPowercat]

That hotel is a dump. Lobby is awesome though.

Hyatt international definately throwing their name into the new convention hotel ring.