Hotel designed to evoke B-2 stealth bomber coming to KCI airport. See the details
A new $45 million hotel, named for and designed to evoke the U.S. Air Force’s sleek-winged B-2 stealth bomber, has been approved for construction at Kansas City International Airport.
When completed in late 2028 or early 2029, the Stealth Hotel — whose wing-like shape is expected to be illuminated — will be the first hotel to open at KCI since the Kansas City Airport Marriott, which is the only hotel on the airport grounds, opened in October 1974.
On Thursday, the Kansas City Council voted to provide a 30-year lease, with two 20-year renewal options, to the developer, Terminal C Hotel LLC, to build and operate a four-story hotel, with 163 rooms, on 4 acres on the northeast corner of Paris Street and Brasilia Avenue.
Terminal C Hotel is a partnership that includes Kansas City hotelier Doug Gamble of Stay it Forward Hospitality, Charlie Synder, former vice president with Marriott International and Grayson Capital LLC of Kansas City, headed by managing partner and chief executive officer Michael Collins.
Stealth Hotel
Gamble on Friday told The Star that building’s design came from his desire to recognize not only the B-2 stealth bomber stationed in Missouri at Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, but also the many people who work and live around the base.
“Then I started thinking about, you know, could we do something that from the air,” Gamble said, “that, if the roof is illuminated — you can’t shoot up in the air obviously — but, if you illuminate the roof correctly, could it be something that looks really cool from the air?“
He spoke the team at NSPJ Architects in Prairie Village. “They said, ‘We know this building that kind of looks like a stealth bomber. It was just a retail building,” Gamble said. But he liked it. “And they came up with that great, great design.”
From above, the building’s outline resembles a B-2.
Decor to honor local jazz, baseball, history and other institutions
Gamble said he first approached Kansas City with his desire to build a new hotel at the airport soon after the public, in November 2017, voted overwhelmingly, 75% to 25%, in favor of building a new terminal at KCI. The original notion was to build it on the site of the former terminal’s Terminal C, thus the name of the company, until plans changed.
Receiving approval for the project, he said, involved lengthy dealings with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Construction on the new terminal broke ground in March 2019. One year later, in March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, upending the world’s health and economy. KCI’s $1.5 billion terminal opened in 2023.
Gamble said he anticipates breaking ground on the Stealth Hotel close to the end of 2026.
Gamble said he also intends for the decor of hotel’s lobby and for each of its four floors to honor and highlight a different Kansas City institution.
He said he has already been in contact with organizations that include the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, the National World War I Museum and Memorial and the Kansas City Museum to be the first of what would likely be a rotation of organizations.
“Imagine giving them a floor to decorate, or help us decorate, so they are telling the story of them and their purpose,” Gamble said.
“So you come off the elevator, instead of seeing just normal hallway wallpaper, we see these floor-to-ceiling murals that become the wallpaper. The guestrooms: Instead of just cheesy artwork, we’ve got stuff that’s related to what they do. So it becomes not a little museum, but a little showpiece of the best things in Kansas City.”
Construction is expected to take about two years, with the hotel opening in late 2028 or early 2029.
