Two more Marriott flags will fly in downtown Kansas City

Chartwell Hospitality, the real estate company developing two side-by-side Marriott hotel properties in downtown Kansas City, is two months from opening the doors.

Will Schaedle, Chartwell’s director of acquisitions and development, said the opening is set for May 31, with construction to be complete by May 18, a few months after previously projected.

The 10-story, $46 million project, a prominent construction site just south of the downtown freeway loop, was announced in mid-2013, and work began in August 2014.

Since then, “we’re pretty much on schedule,” Schaedle said of the 153-room Courtyard Hotel and 108-suite Residence Inn at 1535 Baltimore Ave., near the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

The project attracted special attention from the outset because it has no tax abatement or other development subsidies. Almost all new hotels being built or planned in the downtown and Crossroads areas — and there are at least 10 in the works — are using or requesting some kind of public financing assistance.

“We’re totally satisfied with the decision to go without incentives,” Schaedle said. “We believed the project would stand alone without incentives.”

Chartwell has appointed Curt Cerise as general manager of the joint properties. Cerise has 30 years of hotel experience, largely with Drury Hotels. In 2014, he received the Hotelier of the Year award from the Hotel & Lodging Association of Greater Kansas City.

The Courtyard property occupies the north part of the block bounded by Truman Road and 16th Street, Baltimore and Main Street, and the Residence Inn, the south part.

Schaedle said the development includes a 166-space parking garage that is mostly designed for hotel guests but that may have spaces available to the public.

Whitney Kerr Sr. with Cushman Wakefield is marketing about 4,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space on the 16th and Main sides. Schaedle said the space could be used for offices, restaurants, bars or other retail use.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 3:07 PM with the headline "Two more Marriott flags will fly in downtown Kansas City."