The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and Grayson Capital unveiled the vision for the new Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and Hotel at a press conference on Friday, coinciding with the 106th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues.
The press conference shared Multistudio's architectural renderings for the transformative cultural campus in Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine and Paseo districts. Multistudio is leading the architecture and interior design for the new museum and hotel, as well as master planning for the full block in partnership with DRAW Architecture, which leads the multifamily residential component.
The renderings reveal a 30,000-square-foot museum that returns the museum to the historic Paseo YMCA, where Andrew “Rube” Foster formed the Negro National League in 1920. The expansion includes the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center and establishes a civic anchor at the birthplace of Black professional baseball.
The $35 million project addresses existing spatial constraints and will feature expanded galleries, flexible event spaces, a larger museum store, changing exhibitions, and improved visitor amenities, including a new parking garage, to support increased attendance and community use.
The museum expansion is part of a wave of investment that is reshaping the 18th & Vine District. Adjacent to the museum, local development group Grayson Capital, led by Michael Collins, has announced plans for a 132-key boutique hotel, The Pennant, within Marriott Bonvoy’s Tribute Portfolio collection. The hotel's name honors the Kansas City Monarchs’ first league title and will complement the museum as a cultural destination for district visitors.
The hotel development will mark a milestone as the first majority Black-owned hotel in Kansas City since the historic Street Hotel, once a safe and welcoming option for Black travelers, performers, and athletes during the segregation era. Planned amenities include an upscale restaurant honoring the Street Hotel’s original proprietors, a rooftop bar with views of Kansas City, and cultural partnerships offering curated “stay-and-play” experiences tied to the museum and surrounding institutions.
An earlier campus vision adjacent to the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center, on the historic Paseo YMCA site, was developed by Pendulum Studio, establishing the project’s foundational concept and narrative.
Construction of the expanded Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is anticipated to conclude in late 2028.
