The riverfront’s Bally’s Casino, located immediately east of the Christopher “Kit” Bond Bridge and Berkley Riverfront Park, will soon have a hotel.

Plans are in the works for a 5-story, 120-room Springhill Suites hotel. It will be built on a portion of the grassy lot between the casino building and the Bond Bridge. Its location will lend itself well to those visiting CPKC Stadium for a KC Current game or for other events. The hotel is also the second to be built on the riverfront (the other being the Origin Hotel at Berkley Park).

Plans are still early with two design options presented for the hotel. Modus Architecture is the firm connected to the design of the hotel. True North Hotels Group of Overland Park is the developer.

The City’s Transportation, Finance and Operations Committee on April 15th reviewed a resolution presented by 4th District At-Large Councilman Crispin Rea that would authorize the creation of a new “port improvement district” for the purpose of “imposing a 1% sales and use tax”. In other words, the City is allowing for some sales tax revenues generated by the hotel and casino to help pay for the hotel over the course of 25 years. $16 Million in revenue is expected to be generated over those 25 years. The hotel itself is capped at $4.9 Million. The other remaining money will go towards improvements at Berkley Riverfront Park.

PortKC leases the land the casino, and future hotel, are on from the City and they then sublease it to Bally’s Casino.

The gallery below shows the site (Google Earth) and option 2 for the design.