The agreement to renovate the Intercontinental Hotel on the Plaza passed City Council Thursday. Also passing was the authorization to allow the city manager to strike up a deal with the downtown Marriott.
While the details with the Marriott still need to be worked out and agreed upon, there was an amendment to the Intercontinental Hotel deal. To help with renovations, the Intercontinental Hotel will receive a one percent sales tax from only visitors who stay there.
In return, the council asked for something that would fix what some council members called “real blight.” The hotel will have to give $250,000 to the city, which will go towards senior citizens or other indigent citizens who receive city code violations on their homes and cannot afford to update them.
Kansas City Councilwoman Kathryn Shields explained why it’s an important agreement to the city.
“All of our sports franchise visiting teams, whether they’re football or baseball or others, stay at the Intercontinental and we want to see as a city we have an invested interest in seeing that … this hotel remains strong,” said Shields during Thursday’s City Council meeting.
The Marriott deal would also be a one percent CID only to visitors of the hotel. In return the city would get hundreds of rooms and parking spaces blocked off for conventions. That CID could be voted upon by the end of the month or early November.
The potential downtown Hyatt convention hotel deal was not mentioned Thursday.
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Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
