photo by: Emme Schatz

A renderings shows a concept design for a new hotel at 11th and Massachusetts streets in downtown Lawrence.

There are early-stage plans to build a 95-room, upscale hotel at 11th and Massachusetts streets to compliment the soon-to-open 1,000-person convention center at the University of Kansas’ football stadium.

Lawrence businessman Tony Krsnich — the developer of the Warehouse Arts District in East Lawrence — owns the former Allen Press property at the northeast corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets. He told the Journal-World that he’s now shifted his focus to putting together a hotel deal for the property, given that the KU convention center is expected to create strong demand for high-quality hotel rooms.

The stadium and convention center site is directly up 11th Street, about seven blocks west of the site of the proposed hotel. Krsnich said he has no doubts that many convention-goers will be happy to stay in downtown Lawrence and make their way to the campus convention site.

In fact, Krsnich has a prediction about the outcome of KU’s massive $700 million-plus project to renovate David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and add a convention center into its north end.

“The biggest winner won’t be the convention business or even the football team,” Krsnich said of the project. “It will be Massachusetts Street as a whole.”

Krsnich is envisioning a hotel that would give visitors plenty to do. The concept plan is called Hotel Amelia, which is a nod to the Kansas aviation legend Amelia Earhart. While the hotel wouldn’t have an aviation theme, it would perch visitors atop downtown. The concept plan calls for two rooftop dining areas — one near the top of the five-and-a-half story building, and the other atop a lower-level area that covers the Mass Street entrance to the hotel.

photo by: Emme Schatz

A renderings shows a concept design for a new hotel at 11th and Massachusetts streets in downtown Lawrence.

Plans for the downtown hotel, however, are far from certain. While the property has the required zoning for such a project, any plans would have to win approval from city officials, who have a large amount of control over design issues in the historic downtown district. Krsnich also has acknowledged that any hotel project likely would require a significant amount of financial incentives from the city.

But Krsnich thinks city support for a downtown hotel project would make good sense to City Hall leaders because it is the way to leverage the major investment KU and the State of Kansas is making to build the convention center. Krsnich argues that Lawrence will lose out on valuable consumer spending and sales tax dollars if Lawrence doesn’t have enough high-quality hotel rooms to serve convention attendees.

The KU convention center is expected to have a banquet room that can seat 1,000 people. The university has hired the Oak View Group, one of the largest convention center operators in the country, to run the new facility. OVG officials have said the facility will be marketed as a prime destination for conventions of 500 or more people.

KU’s private development partner — a group led by Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, the firm that oversaw development of the new KCI airport — has announced it will build a 162-room Marriott hotel that will connect to the convention center as part of the second phase of the KU Gateway project. That second phase is still working to secure all of its necessary approvals, with the biggest being a designation as a STAR bond project that will allow it to capture all state sales taxes generated on the site to help pay for infrastructure and parking costs. That STAR bond proposal faces a key vote by the Lawrence City Commission later this summer.

While the inclusion of a on-site hotel is viewed as critical to the success of the convention center, KU officials also have acknowledged that the 162-room hotel won’t be enough to serve all the needs of the convention center.

Krsnich said he has been in discussions with KU officials about the idea of a hotel at 11th and Massachusetts streets. While he said KU officials haven’t officially endorsed the project, he left the meeting encouraged.

“What we are hearing from the university is that we need hotels, and we need them yesterday,” Krsnich said.

While KU hasn’t publicly announced an official opening date for the convention center — it is not likely to be completed when the stadium opens for play in late August — there’s speculation it will open before the end of the year.

Krsnich said it likely would take at least two years to develop a hotel on the property, and that assumes he starts the city approval process soon. Krsnich said he is contemplating submitting a financial incentives request to Lawrence City Hall in the next 30 to 45 days.

photo by: Emme Schatz

A renderings shows a concept design for a new hotel at 11th and Massachusetts streets in downtown Lawrence.

The concept plans — in a nod to the project’s KU connection, Krsnich turned to recent KU masters student graduate Emme Schatz to create the plans instead of a major architectural firm — should give community leaders a sense of what the project could become.

In addition to the 95 upscale hotel rooms, the project would include a ground-floor restaurant dubbed Cafe Anne, featuring “southern luxury dining,” and the ground floor would also include about a 7,500-square foot space for a retail shop.

The second floor would include The HoneyBee, an upscale sports bar that would open onto a large “amenity deck” overlooking Massachusetts Street. The third floor would include four garden terrace areas, while the fifth floor would house the Ad Astra rooftop bar with its own amenity deck overlooking downtown. The fifth floor also would include a small event space of about 3,200 square feet, according to the concept plan.

Krsnich said he hasn’t partnered with a hotel operator yet, but said multiple firms have expressed interest once the market began to realize that the KU convention center site likely will need hotels beyond the on-site hotel to meet its needs.