21c Museum Hotels buys Savoy Acquisition Company's stake in the Hotel Savoy

Cushman & Wakefield announced that Savoy Acquisition Company sold its stake in the historic Hotel Savoy in Kansas City, Mo., to 21c Museum Hotels for cash and conveyance of the east contiguous parking lot, located at 205 W. 9th St.

21c Museum Hotels is transforming the Hotel Savoy into a 120-room boutique hotel with a fine dining restaurant, event space and contemporary art museum. With the purchase of the Savoy minority partnership stake, the Louisville-based 21c Museum Hotels completed refinancing plans with Junius Real Estate Partners, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan. 21c and Junius entered into a partnership in late 2016 to push for the expansion of the 21c brand, adding to its existing hotels in Louisville; Cincinnati; Bentonville, Ark.; Durham, N.C.; Lexington, Ky.; and Oklahoma City.  

McCown Gordon Contractors already began construction on the hotel, located at 9th and Central streets in Downtown Kansas City. Whitney E. Kerr Sr., senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, represented Savoy Acquisition Company in the transaction.

“Over the course of about five years, we put our heart and soul into bringing the old Hotel Savoy and the Savoy Grill back to life,” Eric Holtze, managing member of the Savoy Acquisition Company, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to resolve our joint venture with 21c Museum Hotels in such a positive way, and we are looking forward to the opening of the new 21c Museum Hotel – Kansas City in the spring of 2018.”

Built in 1988, the 110,000-square-foot hotel housed Kansas City’s oldest restaurant. The Savoy Grill was a popular stop for figures such as presidents Harry S. Truman, Warren Harding, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. The property was also the oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States west of the Mississippi River. Both the hotel and restaurant are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1965, Kerr represented Don Lee in the purchase of the Savoy property. “I am delighted that 50 years later, we have handled a transaction that will bring this historic Kansas City landmark back to life,” Kerr said.

The Hotel Savoy closed in 2014 after a fire in its kitchen damaged the property.