Does your company have news to share about a renovation, promotion, new offering or award? Send it to asammarco@visitkc.com with "Member News" in the subject line. Submissions will appear on this page (updated quarterly).

Ambassador Hotel to Open June 2012 in Downtown KC 

The Ambassador Hotel Collection of fine boutique hotels is pleased to announce that their newest signature property, the Ambassador Hotel Kansas City, will open next June in the historic Gate City National Bank building at 1111 Grand Boulevard.
 
The Oklahoma-based Ambassador Hotel Collection has budgeted $11 million to transform the handsome, six-story neoclassical structure with the distinctive columns to a 43-room luxury boutique hotel. A top-to-bottom interior renovation is already under way. For more information, contact Laren Mahoney at laren@oneillevents.com.

Coterie Theatre Now Performing Seussical

Seussical, one of the most popular new musicals in the United States, performs Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 at the Coterie Theatre in Crown Center.

This musical celebration of Dr. Seuss tunefully interweaves the plots of Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg. Though jeered by others, Horton takes on the quest to save the tiny planet of Who and at the same time attempts to protect Mayzie’s abandoned egg, leading us to witness a stirring lesson in standing up for the rights of all living things. “After all, a person’s a person, no matter how small.” For more information, contact Karen Massman VanAsdale at kvanasdale@coterietheatre.org.

Frontier Airlines Introduces Kansas City-Orlando Service

Frontier Airlines said it will introduce nonstop seasonal service between Kansas City (MCI) and Orlando (MCO) beginning Jan. 5, 2012, and operating through April 15, 2012. Initially, the service will operate four days per week, increasing to six days per week beginning Feb. 23, 2012. Service will be provided on 99-seat Embraer 190 aircraft, which feature no middle seats and available STRETCH seating with up to five inches of additional legroom on every flight.

“We’re pleased to expand our low-fare, nonstop service from Kansas City to include new service to sunny, family-friendly Orlando,” said Daniel Shurz, vice president of strategy and planning for Frontier. “With the addition of Orlando, Frontier will serve 19 destinations nonstop from Kansas City.” For more information, contact Justin Meyer at justin.meyer@kcmo.org.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center KC Announces Top 10 KC Landmarks

This fall, LEGOLAND Discovery Center Kansas City asked people to nominate and then vote for their favorite Kansas City landmarks. The top 10 area landmarks will be created in LEGO® bricks by a team of expert LEGO model builders and placed on display inside LEGOLAND Discovery Center Kansas City when it opens in May 2012. The votes were close, but LIVESTRONG Sporting Park came out on top.

Listed below are the top 10 winning landmarks ranked in order of votes:

• LIVESTRONG Sporting Park
• Kansas Speedway
• Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
• Starlight Theatre
• Country Club Plaza
• Union Station
• Truman Sports Complex
• The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
• Crown Center
• Liberty Memorial

 For more information, contact Elizabeth Schellhorn eschellhorn@inkincpr.com.  

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park to Host CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Semifinals and Championship

U.S. Soccer and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced Nov. 2 that LIVESTRONG Sporting Park will host the 2012 Men’s Olympic qualifying tournament semifinals and final. The eight-nation tournament begins March 22, 2012, and will arrive in Kansas City with the decisive semifinals on March 31 before concluding with the championship match on April 2.
 
The winners of each semifinal match at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park on March 31 will advance to the 2012 Olympic Games in London next summer to represent CONCACAF and will meet in the championship match on April 2 at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. For more information, contact Kurt Austin at kaustin@sportingkc.com.

Nerman Painting Graces Cover of Art in America Magazine

A painting by Dana Schutz that is on the cover of the November issue of Art in America belongs to the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College. Bruce Hartman, the museum's executive director, said that he and Marti and Tony Oppenheimer purchased the oil on canvas titled Swimming, Smoking, Crying two years ago at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair in Florida. It was hanging in the Nerman all summer, he said, and now is traveling with the huge Dana Schutz exhibition organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College, State University of New York.

The painting is on exhibit now at the Neuberger Museum, he said, and the show is scheduled to travel to the Miami Art Museum and the Denver Museum of Art next year. Click here to view the cover. For more information, contact press@list.jccc.edu.