EDWARDSVILLE, Kan. -- It's a small town of less than 5,000, but, in the next year to year and a half, it will be home to Kansas's Hard Rock Hotel. Residents we spoke with said they are very excited about the addition.
"I just heard about it in the store and so excited about it," said Amy Collins, who lives in Edwardsville.
The hotel's location is just across the bridge from the Legends Outlets. This project took years to make happen, all starting with a million dollar sewage project.
"Shortly after that project started, this developer Compass Commodity Group III approached the city about doing a project or projects in that area, had gotten some of the land," said City Manager Michael Webb.
Webb said in two years, it went from a few hotels to a big franchise. The hotel will have more than 200 rooms, a conference center, restaurant and rooftop bar.
"We are doing some incentives with the project, along with the developer. It's about a $70 million project. We are probably doing about a little less than a third and about 20 percent and the rest is coming from private financing," said Webb.
People in the town believe this will change Edwardsville for the better.
"It will bring more attraction, more money for the small businesses because it's been really hard for a lot of people," said Collins.
And the city's revenue will boom as well.
"We will probably see once it's open about a $200,000 a year in extra sales taxes to the community. About half of that is allocated to streets, parks and fire," said Webb.
Organizers hope to have this finished by late 2019 or early 2020.
