COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR RESOLUTION NO. 080273

Directing the City Manager to retain a consultant regarding a downtown convention center headquarters hotel or other additional hotel space to support its Convention Center and Facilities.

WHEREAS, in Ordinance No. 070467, As Amended, passed on April 26, 2007, the former Mayor and Council noted the findings of a study conducted by a consultant known as CSL as it related to the Citys needs for additional hotel rooms of the type and location that would support the Citys Convention Center and Facilities and encouraged this Mayor and Council to consider and plan for the expansion of the Citys hotel stock in a manner which would support its downtown convention business, specifically the development of a downtown convention center headquarters hotel ( Convention Hotel); and

WHEREAS, the Citys Convention Center and Facilities offer those local and national businesses and organizations looking for high quality convention and meeting space 388,800 square feet of column-free exhibit space on a single floor with another 55,000 square feet of exhibit space on two other levels, 45 meeting rooms and a 46,000 square foot ballroom, all attached to a fine arts theater seating 2,400 and an arena seating 10,700; and

WHEREAS, the October 2007 opening of the Sprint Center and the National Association of Basketball Coaches College Basketball Experience and the recent opening of venues within the Kansas City Power and Light Entertainment District, along with the anticipated opening of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, will make the Citys Downtown an even more attractive convention destination; and

WHEREAS, in selecting destinations for larger conventions and meetings, some businesses and organizations, and their convention planners, look for cities that not only offer a sufficient number of quality hotel rooms among several hotels in or near their convention facilities; but also those cities which can also offer at least one hotel with a significantly larger number of quality hotel rooms adjacent to, or nearby, their convention facilities; and

WHEREAS, the City may be losing convention business because of the lack of a Convention Hotel or an adequate number of hotel rooms; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:

Section 1. That the City Manager is hereby directed to retain a qualified consultant to develop a funding plan for an approximate 1,000 room headquarters hotel and to develop a process to select an appropriate site for a headquarters hotel and a development team to construct a headquarters hotel.

Section 2. That the City Manager is hereby directed to report to the Mayor and the Council as to the status of the efforts to retain such a consultant within ninety days of the passage of this resolution and every sixty days thereafter until the consultants report and recommendations have been made.

Section 3. That the City Manager is to provide the Mayor and the Council with copies of the final report and recommendations of the consultant.

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