The Hilton President Kansas City opened Wednesday morning, capping a $46 million renovation that started in June 2004.

The hotel, originally called the President Hotel, first opened in 1926 at 1329 Baltimore Ave. The hotel is owned by an investment group led by Overland Park real estate executive Ron Jury, who started the process of buying the property for renovation in 2001, project spokesman Pat O'Neill said.

Jury told a crowd of several hundred people at the hotel Wednesday that the hotel still had life in it in 2001.

"You could feel it even then, like a faint pulse," he said.

Jury "practically wore a groove in the floors of City Hall to make this happen," Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes said.

The Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City supported the renovation with as much as $18 million in TIF bonds. Missouri and the federal government also provided historic tax credits for the project, O'Neill said.

Kansas City-based J.E. Dunn Construction Co. was the general contractor.

"The President has so much to offer the entertainment district, and the district has a lot to offer this hotel," Jury said in a written release. "I feel like we've preserved a part of Kansas City's commercial soul."

The renovation enlarged the rooms and suites, reducing their number from 453 to 213, including a 12th-floor Presidential Suite with a northern view of Downtown, hotel officials said in the release. Each floor has eight faux doors, in keeping with historic preservation requirements and to maintain the look of the original hallways.

The hotel has about 12,000 square feet of meeting space, including an executive boardroom and seven meeting rooms. It also has two ballrooms, the Congress and the Aztec.

© Kansas City Area Development Council