KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Inside the gleaming Drum Room jazz bar of the downtown Hilton President hotel -- where Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra once sipped martinis after late-night jam sessions -- a pair of directors and their documentary film crew milled among the leather bar stools. They are doing reconnaissance on this city's $4.5-billion urban-renewal project, starting with a 1920s hotel that reopened last year after standing empty for nearly three decades.

The last time directors John Altman and Aimee Larrabee filmed here, in 2005, the once-majestic hotel was littered with molding plaster, crumbling Roman pillars and graffiti-covered walls. This time, the visuals were much different.

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