OFFICIAL - East Village

[myxomatosis]

BTW, I thought the "Soho" name was just for the Lofts on the north end of the Crossroads.

They have 2 locations.  The original KC SoHo lofts are at 412 W 8th St between Washington St and Bank St.  They opened the SoHo South lofts on the north end of the Crossroads several years later.  I lived in the SoHo South lofts for 3 years (a month after they opened).  The walls are very thin.  Lots of issues with noise, but I imagine that is the case with most of the newer apartments.

[GRID]

Did anybody save a map of the area that is part of this plan?  I was driving around tonight and I must say those lots just east of McGee between the arena and the At&t communications building have to be some hot property right now.  It would be a great area for a large, dense development like a large hotel etc.

[kcdcchef]

kansas city, contrary to popluar belief, needs a hotel on that side of town, over there close to all the goverment happenings and all. the plan a few years ago was to do the vista del rio or whatever the hell it was called, to be an embassy suites. i still think they need something large over there to anchor that end of town.

[voltopt]

remember when they wanted to turn the vista del rio into a jail?
i think it was in the mid nineties... when the building had skin but no tenant.

of course, now its the view, and i can't argue with that.

[KC0KEK]

Instead of a name, use an unpronounceable glyph, like The Artist Formerly Named Prince did.

[KCwriter]

If I'm not mistaken, Grid, KCDevin mentioned a high-rise hotel on that thread he did about future KC skyscrapers a few weeks ago.

Perhaps that future hotel could go on that site.  I've driven past it dozens of times, and I'm with you; it needs to be filled by something dense and tall.  Between AT&T and those cool old 3-5 story buildings to the north, there is nothing but a field of asphault.  With downtown revival keeping momentum, I'm sure it will be filled soon enough.

The location is 100% for a hotel tower; across the street from Sprint Center, just a block from the Federal Building, City Hall, Jackson County Court House, etc.

I know in Chicago, Miami, NYC, SF, mixed-use hotel/condo towers are big right now.  Perhaps we could do a 30-50 story hotel/condo tower there.  30-50 stories seems standard for them right now.

[KCDevin]

Actually the hotel is planned (but probably not likely for many years) to go S of the P&L Tower and would be 1,000 units... I dunno if it'd be taken seriously now that the Tesla Building would be there and the P&L Tower/Tesla Buildings would be one of the centers for our skyline.

[tat2kc]

the hotel is NOT planned! A concept of how the area could look is all that was, and the concept said that that location would be a good place for a hotel. That's all it was.  It came out of an idea to cover the south loop, and create a vibrant street scene, with a new entrance to the convention facilites, a hotel, and a few other things.  It was never put forth as a solid plan, with financial backing, or even a developer in mind.  Its just an idea.

[macnw]

And a questionable idea at that. Let's see what happens with the President and the convention center.

[kcdcchef]

why questionable?? because the city has "enough" hotel rooms as is?? the hotel president will do virtually nothing to ease up the probelem of conventioneers telling kc that the city is lacking in hotel rooms for the big conventions. nothing. redoing the city center hotel will do nothing. why? because when convention planners tell kansas city EVERY YEAR that we need more hotel rooms to recoup major convention losses to other cities, reopening a 218 room hotel or a 100 room hotel is merely applying a band aid to an amputation.

[macnw]

Your assumption is that everyone will stay downtown. Not necessarily true. Crown Center, Midtown, the Plaza etc... have thousands of rooms that I imagine conventioneers use.

[kcdcchef]

actually, the number of hotel rooms they count include crown center. the plaza are not counted, but they have very few anyway, because they are not considered convienent to downtown.

[Long]

Your assumption is that everyone will stay downtown. Not necessarily true. Crown Center, Midtown, the Plaza etc... have thousands of rooms that I imagine conventioneers use.

If I understand the chef and others I've heard correctly, convention bookers are actually saying the city doesn't have enough hotel rooms.  This isn't someone in KC "speculating" that we don't have enough rooms. . .  there are people with cash in hand saying "you don't have the rooms, so we're going elsewhere."

If you're booking a convention, and you have the choice of booking a city where no one needs a car once they get to their hotel, they can walk to the convention center, to food and entertainment, etc. etc., or that hundreds if not thousands of convention goers are going to have to rent a car, drive from Crown Center and the Plaza, find a place to park, then drive back to their hotel. . . well, the rental car adds to your expenses (or the company's expense), along with the hassle of having to deal with a car.

You do the math.

[KCDevin]

mac, your forgetting something... Crown Center IS in Downtown.

it is only questionable right now b/c it'd cost a lot of money, and would screw with the skyline view of P&L and the future Tesla Building

after 2010 though, I'm sure we will have another 1,000 room + hotel be built, or a bunch of hotels adding up to more than 1,000...

[KC0KEK]

A lot depends on the convention. Most of the ones I attend have shuttle buses making the circuit of all the hotels that offer special deals for convention-goers. When I attend shows in Atlanta, I've stayed in hotels all the way out in Buckhead that were served by the convention buses, although I always used MARTA rail to go back and forth. Same situation with shows in Vegas, Orlando, etc. Chicago recently added a special convention bus route that runs along a private lakefront road between the Gold Coast hotels and McCormick Place. It's a cool way to see a different part of the city.

Anyway, the cost of operating those buses probably is borne by the convention's operators, and even though that overhead can be passed on in the form of higher exhibitor and attendee fees, they'd probably prefer a convention center where the majority of the hotels are a short commute away. Plaza hotels probably fit that bill, while the ones out by 435 and Metcalf don't.

[macnw]

I saw the same thing in D.C. There were numerous shuttles(aka KC Max) that could and would make runs to and from numerous DC hotels that were not real accessible to the new convention center. Why would this not work in KC? The Plaza does not have that many hotels? Fairmont(or whatever it is now, the Raphael, two or three right up the hill on Main and 45th, the planned boutique on JC Nichols Pkwy. That must be close to another 1000 rooms.

[kcdcchef]

well as a former resident of dc for close to 8 years, i can tell you that in dc the hotels are to hell and gone from each other, they are spread out big time. and it still works for the convention/travel industry. why? because their mass transit is the best in the country. period. the metro in dc is cleaner, more effiecient, and easier to understand than the train in new york.

back to kansas city. Long, you are correct sir. after we expanded bartle, and prettied up kemper and municipal in the early 90's, we then had a probelem. if we dont bulid some more hotel rooms for this convention center, it will flop. and it did. we are redoing a part of it again, in essence, not doubling it like 13 years ago, but adding on 20% more space in the form of a ballroom, to make it again more viable, because convention planners told us that we needed upgrades in appearance, technology, and also, in the form of a ballroom. noone wants to eat their elegant dinner in the same room they met at all week. but we ignored the other needs of the convention industry. remember the ffa?? our biggest convention, right there with autodealers, walmart, and vica. and you know what? they had kids downtown, crown center, westport, plaza, airport, overland park, independence, and everywhere. and the business told us this was shit. we lost them, and a ton of other conventions too. which is the bread and butter of the hotels in kansas city. we lost them. not because they want them solely downtown, their people, but because they want them in kansas city in general. and we almost side tracked ron jury and the president project, as well as the muehlbach project 10 years ago, because we were saying "we cannot keep our hotels full now", forgetting why they were not full.

and as a lifetime chef in hotels, i can tell you hotels are happy with a year round occupancy rate of 70%, so that bullshit of they are not full is crap any ways.

finish the prez, bring back the city center hotel, and build another 1000 room hotel on the east side.

[KCDevin]

I am also against it... There is nothing on the East side, and unless you add an MLS stadium, or Royals Stadium (very unlikely though), it won't have any attractions... The area around P&L District is much better.

[kcdcchef]

nothing on the east side. i guess  neither of you has noticed those big goverment buildings?? the east side is crime ridden as all hell, sure, nice propoganda. a major hotel anchors a desolate area faster than a tree helps the desert. that area needs a hotel in the worst way.

[knucklehead]

There are only a few things that need to be fixed to reduce the perception of crime. First, they need to build the homeless center planned for east of the freeway on 13th street. Second they need to talk the two churches in downtown that have soup kitchens into setting up there soup kitchens in the new homeless center. This will cut down on the homeless foot traffic throught the east side.

Second, they need to close the cherry street inn which is the plan. Third they need to close the total station. All that is doable.

While some would object to discouraging the homeless from frequenting the loop, that is offset somewhat by turning the area between 1-35 and Paseo (and Independence avenue to i-70)  into what the downtown development types call a compassion zone. You all ready have operation restart and a new large salvation army facility in the area. There is very little residential in that area currently except for right along Paseo.

With the KCMO Police headquarters in the east side, and cutting down on homeless traffic, there is no reason a redeveloped east side of the loop could not be perceived as being average safety wise.  If needed a community district with taxing authority could be set up to fund a modest supplemental security guard group which could be coordinated  with security at the Government buildings.