KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Origin Hotel opened on October 2 at the Berkley Riverfront, the next step in a big redevelopment plan for the area along the Missouri River just north of downtown Kansas City.
There are a handful of Origin Hotels across the nation, each one designed to personify the city where it's located.
Each room in the Berkley Riverfront hotel features a touch of Kansas City culture, including hearts on walls to represent the iconic Charlie Hustle KC heart or the fountain at the hotel's entrance built by a Kansas City artist.
A majority of the staff is from Kansas City, including Katie Tiegreen, the hotel's director of sales.
Tiegreen marveled at how far the riverfront area has come.
"Even speaking with my dad about where the hotel was, he’s like, 'You mean the old dump site?'" Tiegreen said. "It’s pretty cool to see people’s faces and how much it’s grown, and how much it’s changed. It’s really becoming the area of Kansas City where people want to be."
The hotel is opening at a slower time in the season, but they're thrilled to have the KC Current women's professional soccer team as neighbors to make weekends more exciting.
During the Current's first postseason game, the hotel sold out all of it's 118 rooms. It also helped the Chiefs and Jayhawks played that weekend.
"Probably just the soccer games alone, it’s usually about 60% of everyone that stays in the hotel, and it also brings a lot of new visitors to Kansas City that don’t even realize what CPKC stadium is," said Dustin Weber, the hotel's general manager.
Weber said the streetcar and a beer garden under construction will drive even more people through their doors.
The hotel features a new concept restaurant, Show Pony, featuring an executive chef who's resume includes Kansas City's famed American Restaurant.
"The streetcar definitely will help us out a lot," Weber said. "Just people who can get on the streetcar and go all the way down to the Plaza."
Riverfront residents also are excited to see more action outside their windows.
"I like that, I like seeing a lot more people," said Olivia Oestreich, who lives in the area. "It was good to see it start slowly coming together."
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