Straddling the Kansas and Missouri rivers, Kansas City is a bistate metro area of 2 million people encompassing Missouri’s largest city and Kansas’ second- and third-largest cities.
The area has more fountains—more than 200—than anywhere except Rome, and more boulevards than Paris. More than 20 nightclubs pump out jazz and blues music, and roughly 100 establishments are
devoted to the destination’s unique brand of slow-smoked barbecue.
In the past five years, $9 billion has been spent on revitalization projects that spill into the suburbs, notably around the Kansas Speedway in Kansas. The downtown core of Kansas City, Mo., received $5 billion of that renewal and it is paying off.
"Change Your Perspective," urges the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association (KCCVA), which promotes Greater Kansas City, in a new tagline launched earlier this yea—an apt phrase for a city that in three years has transformed its walkable 14-block downtown convention district into an entertainment, dining and retail dynamo.
Kansas City, Mo.
The Kansas City Convention Center, which includes 388,800 square feet of column-free exhibit space and 45 meeting rooms, recently completed a $150 million renovation and expansion that added a 46,000-square-foot ballroom. Almost 2,000 of downtown’s 3,500 guest rooms are within three blocks of the facility.
Six blocks to the east, the multipurpose, $276 million, 18,500-seat Sprint Center debuted the same year, accompanied by the adjoining $24 million, 41,500-square-foot College Basketball Experience, which features the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Between the convention center and Sprint Center, the new $850 million Power & Light District opened in 2008. The eight-block, 24-hour entertainment district has more than 40 restaurants, nightclubs and entertainment venues.
According to Rick Hughes, KCCVA’s president and CEO, meeting planners are responding to downtown’s rejuvenation.
"There has been renewed interest," he says. "We’re making a comeback with new vigor. We have many unique meeting spaces, a thriving arts community, and sports is huge. Our accessibility and location near the country’s geodesic center—a three-hour flight from either coast—has always worked well for us."
Hughes says 83 new downtown restaurants, clubs and bars have opened since 2005.
Last year, KCCVA’s future room-night bookings were up 31 percent over 2007, and bookings for the convention center increased 80 percent. High-profile groups using the convention center next year include NAACP, which will bring around 10,000 delegates in July and also use Sprint Center, and the National Baptist Convention, expected to lure 20,000 delegates in September.
"Leisure has been holding up. Our Summer Sunsational Savings and ‘Fall for KC’ promotions were successful, the Sprint Center has been performing above projections, and at this point 2010 looks strong for groups," he says.
The largest convention-district hotel, the 983-room Kansas City Marriott Downtown, connected to the center with 93,400 square feet of additional meeting space, completed a total room renovation last year. Among the other properties that have completed enhancements are the restored historic Hilton President, anchoring the Power & Light District, and the Crowne Plaza Kansas City Downtown, which completed a $13 million renovation in August.
A mile south on Main Street from the convention center is another meetings hub: Crown Center, with the 52,000-square-foot Crown Center Exhibit Hall and 300,000 square feet of shopping and entertainment. Its major meetings hotels—Westin Crown Center and Hyatt Regency Crown Center, featuring a combined 1,400 rooms and an additional 96,000 square feet of meeting space—each completed renovations this summer.
Across Main Street from Crown Center and restored a decade ago, Union Station boasts an Amtrak station, the Science City museum, a planetarium, a theater district and the Sprint Festival Plaza. It attracts more than 400 private, corporate and civic events a year. Adding to the area’s appeal is the $26 million National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, which opened in parkland to the south almost three years ago.
On 12th and Main is Town Pavilion, featuring a state-of-the-art conference center with more than 10,000 square feet of space and a rotunda that is available for special events, as well as offices, shops and restaurants.
Between the two convention districts—and within walking distance of both—is the Crossroads Art District, encompassing old warehouses transformed with more than 60 art galleries and stores.
Three miles farther south on Main Street from Crown Center is 15 blocks of shopping and entertainment at Country Club Plaza. Area hotels include Marriott Kansas City Country Club Plaza, which completed a $9 million renovation in August. The area is also home to Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which completed a $200 million expansion and renovation in 2007.
More projects are planned or under way.
In May, the city council approved pursuing the financing and construction of a 1,000-room headquarters hotel on one of five possible sites at the Kansas City Convention Center. A final decision is expected in March.
With an expected 2011 debut, the $400 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the new home of symphony and opera, with two halls seating 1,600 and 1,800, is under construction just south of the convention center.
Truman Sports Complex’s two stadiums are undergoing an overhaul. Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, reopened for the baseball season sporting a $250 million facelift, including a new 9,500-seat open-air pavilion, and the Chief’s Arrowhead Stadium will complete $375 million in improvements, including a new museum, in time for the 2010 NFL season.
The city of Independence, 16 miles from downtown, scheduled Nov. 7 for the grand opening of its new $68 million Independence Events Center. The 7,000-seat multipurpose facility will be home to the new Missouri Mavericks hockey team.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City, Mo., side has four casinos: Argosy Casino Riverside, Ameristar Kansas City, Harrah’s North Kansas City and Isle of Capri Kansas City.
Kansas City, Kan.
With a population of around 147,000 compared to 476,000 in Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City, Kan., the seat of Wyandotte County, is the metro area’s third-largest city.
"We’re part of the metropolitan area but we have a home-town feel and have a wide variety of upscale amenities and lots of entertainment," says Bridgette Jobe, director of the Kansas City/Wyandotte County CVB. "We get statewide associations and lots of reunions."
Meetings-equipped properties include downtown’s Hilton Garden Inn & Jack Reardon Convention Center, with 20,000 square feet of exhibit and function space.
The Kansas Speedway, which opened in 2001 off Interstate 70, has fueled development 11 miles west of downtown. It anchors Village West, a 400-acre entertainment and retail district that boasts a Cabela’s outdoor retailer, a giant Nebraska Furniture Mart and the Community America Park, home of the Kansas City T-Bones minor-league baseball team. The facilities are built around The Legends at Village West, a 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall.
Speedway area meetings-ready properties include Great Wolf Lodge, with an indoor waterpark; Chateau Avalon; a Country Inn & Suites; and a Holiday Inn Express. Others include the Best Western Inn & Conference Center off Interstate 70.
"People are always looking for something different and we have unique meeting space," Jobe says, citing examples such as Cabela’s, the speedway’s garages and event space, unusual restaurants like Legends’ T-Rex Cafe with its life-size dinosaurs, and attractions such as Strawberry Hill Museum and the National Agricultural Center & Hall of Fame.
Across Interstate 435 from Village West, Schlitterbahn Vacation Village Waterpark, Schlitterbahn’s first waterpark outside Texas, was unveiled in July. It is the first phase of a $750 million project that calls for 750,000 square feet of retail space and 1,100 lodging units. Additional phases are slated to open through 2011.
With four casinos located on the Missouri side of the metro area, Kansas recently approved casino gaming and one casino resort for each of four regions, including Kansas City/Wyandotte County, now left with only one applicant, Kansas Speedway and Penn National Gaming for a Hollywood Casino adjacent the speedway. A final decision on the project is expected from a Kansas Lottery review board in December.
With the credit crunch, developers began pulling out last year, and the lottery reopened bids. Cordish Co. proposed a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino at the speedway and Penn National proposed a Hollywood Casino for a site near Schlitterbahn. However, in September the speedway announced that Penn National was buying Cordish’s interest and, if approved, a Hollywood Casino would be built at the speedway instead.
Overland Park, Kan.
Overland Park, Kan., the second-largest city in the metro area, with 170,000 people, is south of Kansas City, Kan.
"We blend metropolitan amenities and suburban hospitality," says Amy Garton, marketing and IT services manager at the Overland Park CVB. "We have an abundance of attractions and almost 80 public parks, and we offer value for meeting- and event-goers."
The city’s primary venue, the Overland Park Convention Center, serves up 237,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. The connected 412-room Sheraton Overland Park offers another 20,000 square feet of function space.
An additional 900 hotel rooms are within walking distance, and another 2,400 rooms are within a five-mile radius.
According to Garton, with corporate business filling in weekdays, the CVB has focused on marketing to weekend groups.
"We have SMERF groups—reunions and youth religious groups are big—and the sports market is huge and growing," she explains.
In July 2013, Overland Park will host its largest convention to date, with 3,000 to 4,000 delegates expected at a Lions Clubs International convention.
In September, the city held the grand opening for its new $36 million Overland Park Soccer Complex, which includes 12 tournament-quality synthetic turf fields and a multipurpose building. Among events booked, the 2010 US Youth Soccer National Championships are expected to bring in 2,000 visitors next July.
The convention center and most hotels are off Interstate 435, about five miles south of downtown. In addition to the Sheraton, top meetings hotels include the Doubletree Overland Park–Corporate Woods, with 28,000 square feet of meeting space, and Overland Park Marriott, which opened a new lobby in July, capping a two-year, $25 million renovation that included enhancements to its 14,000 square feet of meeting space.
Another major group venue is the Overland Park International Trade Center, with 51,400 square foot of exposition space, 9,000 square feet of conference space and a 7,000-square-foot atrium.
Regnier Center at Johnson County Community College has a 5,000-square-foot conference center, atrium space and classrooms. Adjoining the center is the 2-year-old, $15 million Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
Attractions include the 300-acre Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, which has event space; a handful of upscale malls, including Oak Park Mall, with more than 180 stores; and the 600-seat New Theatre Restaurant, featuring year-round shows and entertainment.
The nearby city of Leawood got its first hotel in September. The new 156-room aloft Leawood is located across from the Town Center Plaza shopping center and Sprint Nextel’s world headquarters, and is a mile from the Overland Park Convention Center.
Freelancer Tony Bartlett has been writing about the travel trade industry for more than 20 years.
