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B R A N D STO RY & I D E N T I T Y BY PRIME MARKETING

bound together. known by name. always welcome

T R I B U T E P O RT FO L I O H OT E L

K A N S A S C I T Y, K A N S A S

bound together. known by name. always welcome

what will we cover? The Director’s Opening The Brand Architecture The Brand Story: Four Acts The Rituals of The Dotte Drinks from the Bluff The Manifesto The Culture: Inspiration & Journey The Lexicon: Ownable Lines The Appendix The Script: The Back Story The Guest The Competitive Set

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the director’s opening Every great film needs a location that earns its place in the story. Not a backdrop. Not a setting. A place that is itself a character - confident, modern, local, and a little mysterious. The kind of place that doesn’t have to announce what it is. The kind a director keeps coming back to. The director found hers in Wyandotte County, Kansas. This is a county that has spent its whole life quietly producing extraordinary things from ordinary ground. A railroad town that became a free state. A river bluff that became one of the most diverse communities in the territory. A residential corner of the map called Maywood that became Village West - Kansas Speedway, Hollywood Casino, Legends Outlets, Sporting KC, Monarchs Stadium, the Chiefs just over the line. One of the most alive destination corners in the country.

The Dotte is the newest building in that pattern. It is not the last.

“Everytime I come back to this county, I feel it. That particular electricity. The sense that something is about to happen here, has always been about to happen here. That’s what we’re chasing. That’s what The Dotte is.”

the ground before the building Wyandotte County has never once been given anything. The Wyandot arrived in 1843 with no land waiting and had a town up in two years. Abolitionists, settlers, and Wyandot families built Quindaro on the bluff the only free landing on that stretch of the Missouri, named, it’s said, for a bundle of sticks: one snaps, the bundle holds. Then the work that gave the county its face. Rail yards, stockyards, packing houses that fed a country and drew Croatian families to Strawberry Hill and Mexican families to Central Avenue. A whistle started and ended the day. When the plants closed, the county looked at a neighborhood called Maywood and built Village West. Six generations, one habit. What it has never had is a hotel that came from here rather than landing here. Everything that follows is what it looks like when it finally gets one.

welcome to...

bound together. known by name. always welcome

the brand architecture Everything in this book hangs from five fixed points. The story can flex. The expression can evolve. These do not.

Positioning Statement Brand Promise Brand Personality The Four Pillars The Six Attributes

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positioning statement You came for the peak moment. The Dotte is what surrounds it - a room drawn from the county’s own limestone and brass, a fire lit every night, a long table with a plate already set, and a lamp that never goes out. Whatever the district gives you, this is where it lands.

brand promise However the day or night starts, the needle points here.

Positioning Statement Brand Promise Brand Personality The Four Pillars The Six Attributes

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brand personality The Dotte is the local who left, tried elsewhere, and came back on purpose. Warm, but not soft. Confident enough to under-explain and let a silence sit. Modern because it’s paying attention - not because it’s chasing. It turns the lamp on before you arrive and never mentions it. And it never tells you everything at once: a place worth returning to should always have a room you haven’t found yet. It won’t perform, won’t oversell, and won’t be impressed by the wrong things. It trades looking trendy for feeling authentic.

Positioning Statement Brand Promise Brand Personality The Four Pillars The Six Attributes

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Positioning Statement Brand Promise Brand Personality The Four Pillars The Six Attributes

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photograph any detail in isolation and it should still be traceable to this county. If it could be specified for a hotel in Charlotte or Scottsdale without a single change, it does not belong here.

#1 of this ground THE DESIGN IDENTITY (what we are made of)

A place can be decorated to feel local, or it can be built from the local and the eye knows the difference long before the mind does. One is a costume; the other is a body. The Dotte is the second kind: an identity quarried from its own county rather than applied to it. The materials, the light, the refusal to fake anything-these aren’t a look we chose. They are the ground deciding what we are. It’s why this hotel could not be lifted and set down anywhere else. Take away the place and there is no building left to move.

At the Drawing Board. The essence of limestone, aging brass, brick, blackened steel, and oak carry the public spaces; anything outside the nine-material palette has to explain itself. Every color traces to a documented Wyandotte reference, with no true white or black in the building and Kleig capped at three percent. Pattern is fabricated before it is applied: woven, laid, milled, cast, welded. Light is warm, low, and sourced, and the lobby lamp never goes out. Art and objects come from county makers and county history, and the walls are built to let the collection change.

when the last venue closes, the district should still have somewhere to go,

and it should be here.

#2 in the thick of it THE ENERGY (our place in the district)

Every great night is built to end. The race finishes, the hand is called, the encore stops and the charge all of it created is left with nowhere to go. That’s the quiet problem at the center of an entertainment district: it manufactures peaks and gives them no place to land. The Dotte is that place. Not another venue competing for the high point, but the room that catches it and keeps it going a while longer where the energy of the event becomes the pleasure of the evening.

What this means in operation. The building faces the district: terrace, bar, and lobby all read as open from the street, and the terrace fire is lit every night whether or not anyone is there to see it. Hours follow the district’s calendar, not a corporate one - open before a green flag, lit long after the venues go dark. Programming runs against the district’s peaks rather than around them, so a race weekend, a concert let-out, and a Tuesday convention each find something already happening. Food and drink are built to be served late and fast without dropping off, and the cocktail program carries the county’s own references. Sound, seating, and light are designed for a room that gets loud on purpose and can still hold a corner conversation. Staff are trained to read the district who’s in town, what just ended, which door the crowd comes through.

no guest should leave having been handled.

They should leave having been included.

#3 bound together THE SERVICE CULTURE (how we host)

On the bluff above the river, a community called Quindaro took its name from a Wyandot word for a bundle of sticks: one snaps, the bundle holds. It was a lesson about people before it was ever a lesson about hospitality that a gathering is stronger than the sum of the people in it, and no one in it should be left a single stick. We run the house on that. It governs how we host, how we hire, how the crew holds a room together on a hard night. The long table set for one more is only the most visible proof of a principle that runs the entire staff.

What this means on the floor. The Long Table with the Extra Plate is a standing instruction, not a centerpiece: a place is always set for someone unexpected, and a host’s first job is noticing who walked in alone. Hiring draws from Wyandotte County first, and tenure is an asset to keep rather than a cost to manage. Every associate answers for the whole house, not just their station - a housekeeper can recommend a drink, a bartender knows what’s running at the Speedway. Recovery happens at the point of contact, because a bundle that has to go up a chain isn’t holding. Dotte’s letter waits on every bedside table, and the crew knows what it says. Scheduling assumes the hard night is the real test: the room holds because the people holding it are staffed to.

a guest returning after two years should recognize the building immediately and find something in it they’ve never seen.

#4 always becoming THE REINVENTION (where we’re going)

This county has a habit it can’t break: it looks at quiet ground and decides to make it matter, and it has done so for two hundred years-often enough that it stops reading as luck and starts reading as character. The Dotte is the newest building in that pattern, and like the county, it’s unfinished on purpose. A place worth returning to should always keep a room you haven’t found yet. So the story is left open, written one stay at a time, by everyone who passes through-because a brand that thinks itself complete has quietly stopped being alive.

What this means in practice. Spaces are built to be re-programmed - furniture that moves, power and light for a use nobody has proposed yet, walls detailed for a rotating collection rather than a permanent one. The Unfinished Script and Continuity Library stay in use, so what guests write becomes source material for what the hotel does next. The cocktail list, the art, and the calendar are expected to turn over; the palette, the materials, and the rituals are not. Local makers, musicians, and chefs get standing room to try something here first. The annual review asks what changed, not what held.

the six attributes #1 ROOTED

Of this county, its ground and its materials. It should make sense nowhere else.

#2 CONFIDENT

Quiet authority. We state what we are and trust it to be enough.

GENEROUS

MODERN

The extra plate. The open door. The lamp left on.

Contemporary and forward-facing. We reference history; we do not live in it.

#5 HONEST

Materials that read as themselves and age well. Chosen for wear, not for the first photograph.

#6 KNOWING

A little mysterious. In on the story, and glad to let you in on it too.

Positioning Statement Brand Promise Brand Personality The Four Pillars The Six Attributes

The adjectives that govern every decision - from a cocktail name to a carpet to a line of copy.

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four directions. one county. one hotel at the meeting point

Keep it open. Keep it honest. Let no one leave without feeling more at home than when they arrived. - Dorothee “Dotte” Hawkridge

the brand story act 1 - the ground

A COUNTY THAT KNOWS WHAT IT IS. “The Dotte” is what locals have called Wyandotte County for over a century. A single word. Short. Modern. Easy to say. Impossible to mistake for anywhere else. We took the name b cause it was already there. We didn’t invent it - we borrowed it from the people who’ve been keeping it warm. The hotel sits on a bluff, where four old roads meet. The route that became I-70. The trace that became I-435. The historic ground of Quindaro. Kansas Speedway and the cultural heart of Village West. THE BUNDLE OF STICKS

NAMED, IN SPIRIT, FOR THE KEEPER

Up on the northern bluff sat a community

The hotel is named for a fictional

called Quindaro. The name is a Wyandot

matriarch we call Dotte - Dorothee

word, and it carries the oldest idea in this

Hawkridge . She is our invention, but

building: a bundle of sticks. One stick

true to the county: a woman who built a

snaps easily. A bundle bound together

house where four old roads met and kept

cannot be broken. Quindaro was one

a brass lamp lit in her window every night

of the most diverse communities in the

of her life, so any traveler would know

territory - people of every background,

there was a warm table waiting. She is

living and working as one, stronger as a

not the subject of the building. She is the

bundle than any of them were alone.

temperature of it.

That principle - strength in unity, the bundle of sticks is the through-line of The Dotte. It is why we seat strangers at the same long table. It is why the terrace fire is lit from a bound bundle every night. It is why the brand is built around gathering, not just lodging.

the history THE WYANDOT NATION - THE FIRST BUILDERS (1843) The Wyandot, or Wandat - called Huron by the French - originated near present-day Montreal and moved to Ohio’s Sandusky Valley in the early 1700s. They were the last tribe removed from east of the Mississippi under the Indian Removal Act. In July 1843, 664 members traveled by wagon and steamboat from Upper Sandusky to the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. No land was waiting for them. They purchased acreage from the Delaware and built the settlement that became Wyandotte City - the foundation of this county. Many fell ill on the journey, and the dead were buried on the ground now known as the Huron Cemetery, the Wyandot National Burying Ground. In 1855 the federal government terminated the tribe’s status without consent, and most were removed again to Oklahoma in 1867, where the Wyandotte Nation remains sovereign today. The county carries the name of people who were made to leave it.

QUINDARO - THE BUNDLE OF STICKS (1856 - 1857) In 1856, settlers purchased a bluff-top parcel from the Wyandot six miles above the mouth of the Kansas River, where a rock ledge made a natural steamboat landing. What went up there was a genuine three-way undertaking - Wyandot families, Black settlers, and New England emigrants - built by people with little in common but the ground and the work. The town was named for Nancy Quindaro Brown Guthrie, a Wyandot woman whose husband helped broker the sale; her name is said to mean in union there is strength. Quindaro grew quickly: as many as six steamboats a day, two hotels, a sawmill, a brickyard, a newspaper of its own. For a few years, it was the busiest landing on that stretch of the river.

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AFTER THE WAR - WESTERN UNIVERSITY Quindaro faded after the Civil War, but the bluff endured. A school opened above the abandoned townsite in 1862; by 1881 it had become Western University, regarded nationally as one of the finest African American colleges, particularly for music. The Depression and the war years closed it, and its final class graduated in 1943. In 2025 the Quindaro Townsite was recommended for National Historic Landmark designation. The ruins are held today by the AME Church and the City of Kansas City, Kansas.

THE RECOGNITION (2025) In 2025, the Quindaro Townsite- an Underground Railroad crossing and Free-State haven was named a National Historic Landmark, joining the roughly 2,500 sites deemed nationally significant in American history. The ruins are now an archaeological site owned by the AME Church and the City of Kansas City, Kansas.

THE WIDER COUNTY ARC - FOR THE “REINVENTION” STORY The county’s character is in the succession. Lewis and Clark camped at Kaw Point in 1804. The Grinters ran a ferry across the Kansas River from 1831. The Wyandot arrived in 1843, Quindaro was founded in 1856, and the county organized in 1859. Croatian and Slovenian families came for the packing houses in the 1880s; Mexican families followed for the railroad after 1900. The stockyards rose and closed. The plants rose and closed. The Speedway and the district rose in their place. Every generation here has arrived, built alongside whoever was already standing, and left the county as something it had not been before.

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the keeper Dorothee “Dotte” Hawkridge 1820-1913 She is our invention, and we never pretend otherwise. She is true to the county, and that is the only test that matters. She is not the subject of the building. She is the temperature of it. What follows is how warm. WHAT SHE OWED QUINDARO Dotte did not invent the open door. She inherited it. The principle that runs this house - the bundle that holds where the single stick snaps - was alive on the bluff before she arrived and all around her once she did. It has a name older than hers: Quindaro, a Wyandot word carried by Nancy Quindaro Brown Guthrie, for whom the settlement was named, and said to mean strength in union. It was the most diverse community in the territory, bound together exactly as the word says. Dotte learned the long table from people who had already set one. Her whole ethic is borrowed - knowingly, gratefully, out loud. So the house holds a line it does not cross. The real women who shaped this ground - Nancy Quindaro Brown Guthrie, Clarina Nichols, the Conley sisters - are named only where they are honored: in the Director’s Cut, in their own names, on their own wall. Dotte points toward them. She never stands in front of them. A keeper who took credit for the house she was handed would not be much of a keeper.

THE WITNESS On July 5, 1859, delegates met at Wyandotte to write the constitution that would carry Kansas into statehood. Dotte was thirty-nine, and she was in the gallery - not a delegate, no woman was, but present, and among the women pressing the men in the room to remember them in it. What came out carried three quiet provisions most of the country would wait six decades to match: property in a woman’s own name, equal say over her own

children, a vote in her own schools. She did not write them. She watched a room of ordinary people decide, on purpose, to leave the ground better than they found it, and she spent the rest of her life proving she had been paying attention. She cast a full ballot when Kansas granted it in 1912, fifty-three years later, and died the following winter - at a table, at dusk. The ballot-day paper is framed inside the Keeper’s Suite: corner windows over the bluff and river, the only in-room fire in the building, a linen robe stitched with three words.

THE DAUGHTERS OF DOTTE She had daughters, and the daughters had the sense to stay. The house passed down a female line the county came to call, half in affection and half in fact, the Daughters of Dotte. They kept it open through the parts of a century that test a house - lean years, loud years, years the road went quiet and years it came roaring back. She left one letter sealed, addressed a generation ahead to a great-granddaughter she would never meet. It was opened in 1934. It hangs now in several places through the building. The building itself changed shape many times. That is the bundle drawn out across four generations: one keeper passes, the next holds, and the lamp does not notice the difference. THE HERITAGE BEAT The primary tagline does not move: Bound Together. Never Dark. Always Open. That is the house speaking in the present tense, and it stays the first voice everywhere. Beneath it sits the secondary line - Kept by Her - and everything it carries: the county’s long habit of remaking itself, the modern house standing on that ground now, and the keeper whose hand is still on the lamp.

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the letter November 1912

To my daughters, and to whoever is holding this house when it is read; I voted today. I was thirty-nine when I sat in the gallery at Wyandotte and listened to men decide what a state should be. I am ninety-two now. It took them fifty-three years to reach me. I am not bitter about the wait. I want you to know only that things move, and that they move because somebody stayed at the table. I am leaving you a house, which is a small thing, and an instruction, which is not. Keep it open. Keep it honest. Let no one stay here who is not made better for having been here. You will want to change the building. Change it. It has been three shapes already and not one of them was sacred. But do not let the lamp go out while you are busy improving things, and do not turn anyone away because the hour is late or you cannot place them. Someone once did not turn me away. One stick snaps. The bundle holds. Whoever you are, standing here reading this - you were expected. Dorothee “Dotte “ Hawkridge

the brand story act 2 - the building

SPACE-RETREAT: THE HEARTH Not a room. The far end of the lobby, a quiet space, the light warms, and the fire does the dividing that walls would otherwise do. It sits inside the building’s energy rather than away from it - the sound of the lobby arrives softened, never gone. The quieter alternative to the bar, without leaving the room the bar is in. Where the laptop comes out. Where the proposal gets written. Where the late-night conversation runs long.

SPACE-WHERE THE ENERGY LIVES: THE RACE FLOOR The Dotte sits at the edge of Kansas Speedway, and the hotel doesn’t apologize for that. The Race Floor is the most kinetic room in the building - tall, industrial, lit. Polished concrete, exposed structural steel softened with walnut, dynamic lighting that moves across the day and erupts on race night. Floor-to-ceiling glass on the Speedway side: you don’t watch the race from here, you’re in it. Between race weekends: live music, curated events, energy that needs no occasion.

you are not in a hotel that could be anywhere, you are unmistakably, thrillingly here.

SPACE-THE LIVELY ROOM: THE CONVENTION BAR & LOUNGE The bar of record. Deep bourbon-brown leather. Prairie ceilings pressed in patinated tin. Marquee- bulb warmth holding the room together across the day. A curated whiskey program rooted in the Great Plains grain belt. The bar itself is a single eight-foot slab of book-matched walnut; the back bar is aged brass and open shelving. The cocktail program is The Convention’s signature voice.

SPACE-GUEST ROOMS: ROOMS NAMED FOR THE LANDSCAPE Bluff Rooms occupy the upper floors - quiet, wide-windowed, limestone-plaster walls, deep-sage headboards, walnut case goods. Mornings here are unhurried. Landing Rooms are oriented toward the Speedway - darker palette, richer textures, the sense of being at the commercial center of something in motion. The Keeper’s Suite is the signature: corner windows over the bluff and river, a long writing desk, the only in-room fireplace in the building, and a linen robe stitched with three words: Keep it open.

SPACE-THE OPEN HAND: THE QUINDARO TERRACE The west-facing outdoor terrace and the brand’s biggest single visual asset. Communal tables in long walnut. A live fire pit, lit each night from a bound bundle of sticks. String lighting that turns the whole terrace gold after dark. The view: the Speedway grandstand in profile, Village West beyond, and the long prairie horizon that has not changed in two hundred years. Rotating guest chefs from the county’s remarkable culinary range.

SPACE-GALLERY: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT A single large-format screen on the corridor wall, running a slow, silent loop on the way to breakfast. Archival photography and commissioned portraiture, held long enough to reward a slow reader and composed to land on a fast one. Text sets quietly beneath each frame - no motion graphics, no transitions that announce themselves, no sound. The women who shaped this ground hold the loop: Nancy Quindaro Brown Guthrie, Clarina Nichols, the Conley sisters. Honored, not commercialized.

some places just know; this is one of them.

the brand story act 3 - the energy

THE THRILL IS BUILT IN Compression is the word for it. The thing that makes a race great, a hand great, a meal great - it’s all the same thing. A heightened present. The sense that something is at stake and that you are here for it, right now, and won’t be again in quite this way. Village West manufactures that feeling four different ways and then, at some point every night, sends everyone out into a parking lot with it still burning.

Race Weekend The Race Floor opens Friday evening and doesn’t fully exhale until Sunday night. The Convention hosts the pre-race dinner, where the whole weekend is still ahead and everyone knows it. Sunday morning the Quindaro Terrace serves breakfast before the gates open - a low hum in the room, engines already audible across the lot, nobody quite ready to say out loud what they’re hoping for. The whistle sounds at dusk that evening whether the finish went their way or not. Casino Nights The High Hand stays open late for the people who aren’t finished. The Convention’s whiskey program runs a midnight-to-two menu for guests finding a second wind - the hour when strangers become a table and the story of the night gets told for the first time. Nobody is asked to close out. The extra plate gets used most often at this hour. Concert. Sporting KC. Monarchs. Chiefs Sunday. The venue produces the moment; The Dotte hosts what comes after. Ears still ringing, voices gone, a crowd carrying the same night in different directions and finding one room where all of it still counts. The kitchen is built to serve this crowd fast and late without dropping off, because the twenty minutes after a let-out is the whole opportunity. The Quiet Nights Tuesday evenings. Off-season weekends. Nobody in from out of town, nothing on the calendar, the lamp lit anyway and the fire going and eight people at the bar who have made a habit of this. It’s the truest test the building takes: the charge isn’t coming from the district tonight. It’s coming from the room. This is the night the brand is actually built for - the reason for a fire lit whether or not anyone is watching, the reason the letter is on the bedside table, the reason Never Dark is a promise and not a slogan. Some places just know.

the brand story act 4 - the reinvention

THIS COUNTY KEEPS BUILDING SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY. Once you notice the pattern, you can’t stop noticing it. Wyandotte County looks at quiet ground and decides to make it matter - so consistently, for so long, that it stops reading as luck and starts reading as character. A town on a bluff above the river. Packing houses and rail yards that fed a country. A neighborhood at a highway crossing that nobody outside the county thought was worth much. A century and a half after the founders, leaders stood at I-70 and I-435 and did it again. Kansas Speedway. Hollywood Casino. Legends Outlets. Children’s Mercy Park. Monarchs Stadium. In fifteen years Maywood became Village West, one of the most visited destinations in the region. Now it needs a hotel worthy of what it became. A bar with a conversational personality, a restaurant that serves its regulars like it knows them, rooms that carry a story, and a terrace where the Kansas sunset arrives every evening and takes your breath without asking permission. That is what Always Becoming means before it means anything about programming or turnover: the county was never finished, so neither is the building. The Dotte is built out of the pattern rather than placed on top of it. The whistle at dusk marks the past, the present, and everyone still on their way - all three, because all three are the point.

village west has the energy; the Dotte gives it a home

the rituals of the dotte THE LAMP THAT NEVER GOES OUT

A single brass lamp burns in the lobby, and it is never extinguished. Not at night - The Dotte does not close. Not in daylight. Not ever. It was lit the day we opened and it burns continuously, checked at every shift change; if its element ever fails, it is replaced before the next guest crosses the threshold. It is the literal form of Dotte’s promise: the lamp is on, so the kitchen is open, so come in. Every guest is told one fact about it on arrival - it has not gone dark since the day we opened, and it never will.

THE NIGHTLY BUNDLE

The fire pit on the Quindaro Terrace is never lit from a single log. Each evening, at the dusk whistle, a member of the cast lights it from a bound bundle of sticks - the Quindaro principle made literal. One stick won’t catch. The bundle always does. New members of the cast add a stick to the season’s bundle on their first shift, so the fire that warms the terrace is built, by season’s end, from the hands of everyone who works here.

THE UNFINISHED SCRIPT & CONTINUITY LIBRARY

The Dotte is a location in a film that is always being written. In every guest room is an unfinished script - a slim bound volume in screenplay format, with the guest’s stay written in as a scene that hasn’t happened yet. Guests are invited to write their scene: what happened, who they were with, what the night became. Completed scripts are archived in the Continuity Library, a shelved alcove off the lobby, where any guest can pull one down and read a stranger’s night at The Dotte.

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the rituals of the dotte

THE LETTER On every bedside table, a single envelope: a printed copy of Dotte’s letter to her greatgranddaughter. To be read once. To be left for the next guest. It is the shortest document in the building and the one most guests remember.

THE LONG TABLE & THE EXTRA PLATE

Communal seating is always offered, never forced. A reservation for two is quietly set for three. A guest dining alone is asked one question before being seated: Would you like company? The Dotte seats people where conversation happens - the bundle of sticks, set at dinner.

Five acts the house performs the same way, every day.

drinks from the bluff #1 #2 #3 #4

THE BUNDLE OF STICKS Signature - Kansas bourbon, Missouri rye, and Plains corn whiskey, stirred with sorghum syrup and black walnut bitters. Served up, with a single brandied cherry at the bottom. Three spirits, one drink - strength in unity. The first drink the bartender recommends, and the right answer almost everytime.

DOTTE’S LAMP The Welcome - Kansas bourbon, wildflower honey, lemon, a dropper of smoked apple bitters. One large clear cube, a thin twist of orange. Warm amber - the light in the window. The drink the house pours when it wants you to feel welcome.

THE CROSSROADS For the meeting of paths - Smoked corn whiskey finished over Missouri River driftwood, with elderflower, lime, and agave. Chilled coupe, half-salted rim. Bright and balanced. The second drink of the evening, when the room has settled and the stories have started.

THE MARQUEE Premiere Night - A rye-forward Manhattan under a cloche of applewood smoke, lifted at the table. The smoke clears, the room looks up, the drink arrives. Premier night, every night.

#5 #6 #7

THE SCHOOLHOUSE The Studious Hour - Kansas apple brandy, dry farmhouse cider, ginger, lemon, a sprig of prairie sage. Lower in alcohol, brighter, served long. For the late afternoon and the conversation that runs long.

OPENING NIGHT The Celebration - A Sazerac variation, made to mark something: Kansas rye, absinthe rinse, demerara, Peychaud’s, lemon peel. No ice. For an anniversary, a deal closed, a race won, a night that earned a name.

QUINDARO PUNCH Communal For the Table - A copper bowl for four to eight, ladled into copper cups. Kansas bourbon, seasonal stone fruit, sorghum, lemon, soda, and rotating prairie botanicals. The bundle in liquid form.

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the manifesto We take quiet ground and build what nobody saw coming.

We are the essence of limestone and walnut and the long flat reach of the Kansas sky.

We are a bundle of sticks. One snaps. The rest hold.

The lamp has never gone dark, and we mean it as a promise. The kitchen is open. The table has a chair for you.

At dusk we sound the whistle - for everyone who built this place, everyone in it now, and everyone still on their way.

When the race ends and the room empties, the night comes here.

We don’t ask to be remembered. We leave the lamp on, set the extra plate, and let the rest take care of itself.

we are the Dotte bound together. known by name. always welcome

where the brand comes from, and where it takes a guest. Inspiration and journey.

the culture THE INSPIRATION

THE COUNTY

THE BUNDLE

THE KEEPER

The Dotte draws from three wells. Everything we make can be traced back to one of them

A two-hundred-year habit of turning ordinary ground into something extraordinary. We are the newest expression of an old local instinct.

Quindaro’s founding principle: in union there is strength. One stick snaps; the bundle holds. It governs how we gather, seat, host, and hire.

Dorothee “Dotte” Hawkridge, who kept the lamp lit and the table set. Her instruction is our standard - keep it open, keep it honest, send no one away unchanged.

THE JOURNEY

Two journeys run through The Dotte, and they rhyme.

THE COUNTY’S JOURNEY

THE GUEST’S JOURNEY

From founders who built a city in two years, to a community bound together on the bluff, to a quiet corner remade as Village West. The Dotte is the latest chapter, not the last.

From the energy of the event to the charge of the bar to the warmth of the table to the hush of a Bluff Room at dawn. They arrive keyed up and leave more at home than they came.

the mark The letter D back to back knocked out from the mark which represents doors symbolizing the idea to keep it open

PRIMARY LOGO

The connectivity of the bundle of sticks

The lamp that symbolizes the matriarch who kept it on

SECONDARY LOGO

EMBLEM

dotte’s mark Dotte signed everything. Her mark, a D and an H pulled through in one stroke, closed a letter, labeled a crate, and settled an account. It was never decorative; it was proof she had been there. It is a working hand, not a designed one, leaning the way a hand leans when it is moving fast and has done this ten thousand times before, and nothing about it was drawn twice. We use it as she did: it appears where the hotel has done something worth standing behind, on a bar tab, a matchbook, a key card, the last page of the letter on your bedside table. Where the wordmark introduces the hotel, the mark closes the transaction, and it should never be asked to do both. The stroke runs past the letters and ends in a single point well clear of the last form. Read it as continuation, not punctuation. The hand hasn’t lifted, the account is still open, and whatever it’s attached to is one entry in a much longer ledger.

the pattern Two readings live within one drawing: read as contour, it is the bluff; read as grain, it is walnut—both shaped through natural accumulation. The pattern exists in two states: filled and confident for walls, headboards, and full-bleed applications; open and quiet for spaces supporting typography. Lines never repeat, mirror, tile, or resolve; the pattern remains in motion, naturally cropped by each edge and continuing beyond it. Each application uses only two palette colors, with reversed pairings shifting visual weight without changing the drawing. Scale gives the pattern meaning: architectural scale becomes subtle texture, while print scale becomes a signature—never decoration.

RGB R-201 G-210 B-193

RGB R-194 G-79 B-61

RGB R-198 G-163 B-105

HEX C9D2C1

HEX C24F3D

HEX C6A369

PRAIRIE CMYK C-42 M-56 Y-80 K-27

CMYK C-8 M-8 Y-16 K-0

RGB R-125 G-94 B-60

CMYK C-28 M-93 Y-98 K-28

HEX 7D5E3C

CMYK C-57 M-66 Y-77 K-70

WHISTLE

RGB R-233 G-226 B-211

CMYK C-16 M-18 Y-36 K-0

RGB R-143 G-42 B-31

RGB R-215 G-199 B-167

RGB R-52 G-38 B-25

HEX D7C7A7

HEX E9E2D3

POVITICA

HEX 8F2A1F

CMYK C-23 M-34 Y-67 K-1

HEX 342619

STRAWBERRY

LIMESTONE

CMYK C-18 M-82 Y-82 K-6

FOREMAN

CMYK C-21 M-10 Y-24 K-0

STOCKYARD

LAKESIDE

the palette

Nine colors in three tiers: three Anchors, three Locals, three Lights. Anchors do the structural work. Locals carry the signature warmth and provenance. Lights handle accent, contrast, and the cinematic finish. Every name is a documented Wyandotte reference.

the fonts

primary

secondary

avires

gotham

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ! @ # $ % ^ & *

the lexicon #1 #2

SIGNATURE LINE The lamp never goes out - The single most ownable sentence we have. A literal operational fact and a brand promise in one. Earns a wall of its own near the lobby lamp.

WELCOME LINE We were expecting you - Replaces “You are welcome here.” Warmer, more knowing, slightly mysterious - the host who turned the lamp on before you arrived. Use at check-in, on key sleeves, on the first page of the in-room script.

HERITAGE MOTTO

DEPARTURE LINE

DISTRICT LINE

BUNDLE LINE

Keep it open - Dotte’s own words, retained from her letter. Stitched into the robes. The internal north star for every decision.

Come energized. Leave inspired - The promise compressed into the arc of a single stay. Use on checkout materials and farewell touchpoints.

Where Village West comes home - Positions The Dotte against the venues around it - not a competitor to the track or the casino, but the place all that energy returns to. Use in district and partnership contexts.

One stick snaps. The bundle holds - The community principle in one line. Use in culture, hiring, and team-facing materials.

keep it open

the script

The back story every member of the cast/staff carries. Not to recite - to know in the body, so that when a guest asks “why is it called The Dotte?” you can answer in a way that makes them glad they asked. Learn it once. Tell it forever. THE COUNTY We’re in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Locals call it “the Dotte.” It has a strange and wonderful habit: it takes quiet, ordinary ground and builds something extraordinary on it. It has done this, again and again, for two hundred years. THE FIRST BUILDERS In 1843, the Wyandot Nation arrived from Ohio and built a thriving town here in two years - churches, schools, a government - before Kansas was even a state. The county still carries their name: Wyandotte. We carry it too, shortened the way locals always have: the Dotte. THE BUNDLE OF STICKS On the bluff above the Missouri River sat a community called Quindaro. The name is a Wyandot word meaning a bundle of sticks - because one stick snaps easily, but a bundle bound together cannot be broken. Quindaro was one of the most diverse communities in the territory, people of every background living and working as one, stronger together than any of them were alone. That idea is the oldest one in our building. It’s why we seat strangers at the same long table. It’s why the terrace fire is lit from a bound bundle every night. THE KEEPER The hotel is named, in spirit, for a woman we call Dotte — Dorothee Hawkridge. She’s our invention, but she’s true to the county: a matriarch who built a house where four old roads met and kept a brass lamp lit in her window every night of her life, so any traveler would know there was a warm table waiting. “If Dotte’s lamp is lit,” people said, “the kitchen is open. Come in.” She left one instruction, and it’s still ours: keep it open, keep it honest, let no one leave without feeling more at home than when they arrived.

THE REINVENTION A century later the county did its trick again - looked at a quiet neighborhood between two interstates and built Village West: the Speedway, the casino, the outlets, the stadiums. One of the most alive corners in the country. The Dotte is the newest building in that pattern: the place where all that energy comes home. YOUR JOB You keep the lamp on. You set the extra plate. You sound the whistle at dusk. You make a guest who came for the race or the casino or the concert leave saying: “I’ll stay at The Dotte again - not because of where it is, but because of how it felt.”

Now go light the lamp.

You are not staff. You are the crew. A location can be dressed. A story can be written. Neither one plays without the people running it. Everyone who comes through these doors is walking onto ground that has been telling the same story for two hundred years, and you are the reason they feel it. Nobody here is an extra.

the guest THE LIVE ONES

HOLLYWOOD’S INNER CIRCLE

FREE - SPIRITED ENTERTAINMENT JUNKIES & EXPERIENCE ENTHUSIASTS

REGIONAL COUPLES AND FRIEND GROUPS CHASING A FUN, POLISHED NIGHT OUT

STATS • Ages 25–50; kids 8–18 where affluent sports-oriented families are involved • Income: $75K–$180K • Life stage: Young professionals, DINKs, early families with trusted babysitters, friend pods, and visiting team supporter groups • Regional drive market (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa) plus fly-ins from key NASCAR feeder markets and broader Midwest; visiting team supporters traveling for Sporting KC matches, concerts, casino fun and post2031 Chiefs games • Stays: 1–3 nights, built around marquee races, car shows, • motorsport weekends, MLS matches, concerts, and youth tournaments STYLE • Big-ticket events are annual rituals-travel cements friendships and shared identity • The event is the reason (NASCAR, Sporting KC playoffs, Chiefs openers); the surrounding hours make it a story • They plan the hotel like they plan the tickets-it has to match the energy • Want pre-game buzz, post-event decompression, a scene that feels alive without needing a lanyard • Spend freely on food, drink, and merch when the environment reflects themwill cut a night before downgrading the vibe • Hotel choice is identity-indie, design-forward wins over a generic chain, and they post it • Bars, fits, and highlight moments drive social content not room photos • Mixed-age early evenings shift to an adult scene after hours • Expect efficient logistics-parking, walking routes, shuttles but want to feel on the inside track, not just in the crowd

STATS • Ages 30–60 • Income: $85K–$200K • Life stage: Established couples, small friend groups, empty nesters many drawn from Wyandotte County’s growing midincome households and Johnson County’s affluent suburban base (median HHI $109,208) • Regional drive market within 2–3 hours; frequent visitors to • Hollywood Casino events and the broader Village West entertainment district • Stays: 1–2 nights, often weekend, sometimes midweek comps or offers STYLE • See Hollywood Casino as entertainment and social hub but want to sleep somewhere that feels like a genuine retreat from the floor • Not high-rollers by definition: high-discretionary spenders by habit. F&B, craft cocktails, and gaming experiences are where the money moves • Hotel F&B has to hold its own-or they’re spending it somewhere else • Wyandotte and Johnson County and western KC suburban professionalscollege-educated, dual-income, graduated past generic chains • Want something adult, energetic, and slightly indulgent without crossing into pretentious • Empty nesters are the highest-value sub-segment: freed from family scheduling, they visit more often, stay longer, and become the most loyal Bonvoy repeaters • Respond to playful, luck-themed touches- surprise upgrades, a lucky welcome drink, an all-in amenity package-that weave the stay into the night’s storyline • What keeps them coming back: remembered names, drink preferences, honest recommendations, and a front desk that feels like a friend who already knows the district

SEASONED TRAVELERS

LOCAL LOYALISTS

DESIGN-AWARE TRAVELERS & ROAD-WEARY PROFESSIONALS LONGING TO BE INSPIRED, CARED FOR AND ENTICED.

WESTSIDE KANSAS CITY RESIDENTS WHO MAKE THE HOTEL THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD’S LIVING ROOM

STATS • Ages 28–60 • Income: $70K–$180K • Residence: Kansas City, Kansas and western Kansas City, Missouri suburbs within 20–30 minutes, drawn from Wyandotte County’s younger, diverse, entertainment-hungry base (median age 33.9, 34.3% Hispanic, 21.2% Black) and Johnson County’s growing affluent suburban corridor • Visit frequency: Regular day visits, 1-night staycations tied to events or casino nights

STYLE • Big-ticket events are annual rituals- travel is how they cement friendships and build shared identity • NASCAR at Kansas Speedway, Sporting KC playoffs, Chiefs home openers, Casino events-the event is the reason; the surrounding hours are what make it a story • They plan the hotel like they plan the tickets-it has to matc the energy • Pre-game buzz, post-event decompression, a scene that feels alive without needing a lanyard to access it • Spend freely on food, drink, and merch when the environment reflects who they are-will cut a night before they downgrade the vibe • Hotel choice is identity:indie-spirited and design forward wins over a generic chain every time, and they post it

STYLE • Already belongs here-shops Village West, plays at Hollywood Casino, watching this corridor become KC’s most dynamic entertainment district • Missing a place designed for them-independent, design-forward, Westside rooted • Wants a bar and restaurant to claim as their own-bring visitors proudly or show up solo and be recognized • Responsive to genuine programming-local brewers, KC pitmasters, live music — performative need not apply • Wyandotte residents: drawn by events and accessible F&B • Johnson County empty nesters: return for design, dining, and neighborhood sophistication • Get this right and they become the hotel’s most powerful marketing asset • First wave of UGC-post authentically, bring their networks, tell visitors where to stay • They don’t just fill seats-they build the identity from the inside out

the competitive set MARGARITAVILLE HOTEL - KANSAS CITY

CHATEAU AVALON HOTEL & SPA

HOMEWOOD SUITES BY HILTON

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• • • •

228 rooms (opened June 2025) Brand: Margaritaville (lifestyle brand) Distance: 1.5 miles from Kansas Speedway Rate positioning: Upper‑midscale to upscale ($175–$275 estimated)

STRENGTHS • Brand-new (2025) freshest physical product in market • Strong Margaritaville recognition with leisure, family, and group travelers • Resort amenities: indoor/outdoor pools, cabanas, NinjaCross course, Fin City entertainment center, 14,000 sq ft event space • Branded F&B, retail, and active social programming • Family-friendly draws: arcades, obstacle courses, waterpark • Walkable to Children’s Mercy Park and Legends Outlets WEAKNESSES • Themed chain, not independent/can read as prescriptive/kitschy to authenticity-minded Modern Mavericks • Skews family/group vs. sophisticated couples and corporate guests • Not adjacent to speedway or casino • Loud, high-energy public spaces vs. curated adult social scenes • Lacks Tribute’s site-specific, independent storytelling OUR DIFFERENTIATION • Design-driven, not brand-decorated • Adult-centric energy that stays approachable • Closer to the speedway/casino core • True indie narrative rooted in KC motorsport and gaming culture, not exported tropical escapism

• •

62 rooms Brand: Ascend Hotel Collection (Choice Hotels soft brand) Distance: ~1 mile from Kansas Speedway Rate positioning: Upscale boutique ($150–$300+)

STRENGTHS • Unique experiential positioning / fantasy suites with inroom jetted tubs, spa, couples/romance appeal • Full-service spa • Rooftop terrace with views • Boutique scale/intimate, personalized service • Rate leader among independents • Strong local awareness with loyal repeat and specialoccasion clientele WEAKNESSES • Niche romance positioning limits market/little draw for corporate, sports, or family travelers • Small scale (62 rooms) • Mixed reviews on upkeep and service consistency • Exterior corridors/less upscale, weather-exposed • Aging product with signs of deferred maintenance • Limited F&B • No KC or motorsport narrative/ generic fantasy vs. site-specific storytelling OUR DIFFERENTIATION • Broader appeal across corporate, couples, groups, and event attendees • Stronger, more consistent service aligned with Tribute standards • True Tribute “vibrant social scenes” with bar/lounge programming vs. private spa retreat • Authentic KC and speedway/casino storytelling vs. generic romance theme • Scalable meeting and group capacity

108 rooms (opened 2018) Brand: Homewood Suites by Hilton (extended‑stay) Distance: ~2 miles from Kansas Speedway Rate positioning: Upper‑midscale ($130–$200)

STRENGTHS • Suite product:full kitchens and separate living areas for extendedstay corporate and families • Hilton Honors integration: strong repeat business from members • Free breakfast and evening social value-add for cost conscious travelers • Newer build (2018) • Indoor pool, fitness center, meeting space • Proximity to speedway, Sporting KC, Legends Outlets • Positive reviews: cleanliness, staff, reliable Hilton standard WEAKNESSES • Extended-stay flag, not lifestyle • Standard Hilton design • Limited F&B: grab-and-go breakfast, packaged social, no destination bar or restaurant • No vibrant social scenes • Corporate-functional aesthetic • Suite format may overshoot transient leisure and event guests who prefer hotel-style service OUR DIFFERENTIATION • Design-led hotel vs. extended-stay suite format • Destination F&B and bar driving local buzz vs. functional amenities • Independent character and narrative vs. Hilton brand consistency • Tribute’s Modern Maverick guest vs. Hilton Honors utility traveler • Premium positioning and service vs. value-focused all-suite model

COUNTRY INN & SUITES BY RADISSON

GREAT WOLF LODGE - KANSAS CITY

• • •

• • • •

•

96 rooms Brand: Country Inn & Suites by Radisson Distance: ~0.5 miles from Kansas Speedway (closest hotel to track) Rate positioning: Midscale to upper‑midscale ($110–$170)

STRENGTHS • Closest proximity to Kansas Speedway–walking distance, prime for race weekends • Free breakfast–value driver for families and budget‑conscious travelers • Indoor pool and fitness center – standard amenities • Radisson Rewards integration • Positive guest feedback on staff and location • TripAdvisor “#1 Best Value” near Kansas Speedway

263 rooms Brand: Great Wolf Lodge (family chain) Distance: ~0.7 miles from KS Rate positioning: Upper‑midscale to upscale ($180– $350, driven by waterpark access)

STRENGTHS • Indoor waterpark-38,000 sq ft included with stay, major family draw • Large-scale property- significant meeting space, multiple F&B outlets • Family programming-arcade, MagiQuest, kids’ activities • Strong national brand recognition among families • High weekend/holiday occupancy waterpark drives demand independent of speedway/casino • Proximity to Kansas Speedway and • Legends Outlets

WEAKNESSES • Midscale positioning and design – standard select‑service aesthetic, no lifestyle or independent character • Aging property – reviews note need for carpet and interior updates • No F&B beyond breakfast • Limited meeting/event space-not a true group or corporate destination • Exterior corridors – less upscale perception • Generic brand experience

WEAKNESSES • Family-with-children positioning only no draw for couples, corporate, or adult travelers • Chaotic, high-energy environment: loud, crowded public spaces • Not independent or design-driven: branded chain with prescriptive theming • No KC narrative-generic family entertainment formula • Limited appeal outside family leisure not for corporate, childless sports fans, or sophisticated travelers

OUR DIFFERENTIATION • Upscale lifestyle vs. midscale select‑service • Interior corridors, elevated design, and curated public spaces • Destination F&B and vibrant social programming vs. free breakfast as highlight • Independent narrative and Tribute “Stay with Character” ethos vs. chain predictability • Higher ADR target and guest profile (Modern Mavericks vs. value‑seekers)

OUR DIFFERENTIATION • Adult-centric and couple-friendly vs. family-exclusive • Sophisticated, design-led social spaces vs. themed waterpark resort • Independent character rooted in KC motorsport and gaming culture vs. national chain formula • Quieter, more refined ambiance vs. high-energy family chaos • Broader appeal across corporate, couples, groups, and event attendees

RESIDENCE INN BY MARRIOTT - KANSAS CITY AT THE LEGENDS • • • •

90 rooms (all suites) Brand: Residence Inn by Marriott (extended‑stay) Distance: ~0.7 miles from KS Rate positioning: Upper‑midscale ($140–$210)

STRENGTHS • Suite product with full kitchens– appeals to extended‑stay corporate, relocations, and families • Marriott Bonvoy integration • Free breakfast and evening socials– value‑adds • Indoor pool, fitness center, sport court, barbecue area • Positive guest reviews–cleanliness, quietness, and comfort • Proximity to speedway, Legends Outlets, corporate offices WEAKNESSES • Extended‑stay format, not transient lifestyle positioning • Standard Marriott brand design – no independent character or design differentiation • Limited F&B – grab‑and‑go breakfast and packaged evening reception, no bar or restaurant • Public spaces designed for utility – not social programming or local buzz • Appeals to long‑stay corporate and families – not event‑driven leisure or Modern Mavericks OUR DIFFERENTIATION • Transient hotel vs. extended‑stay suite format • Destination bar and restaurant vs. kitchenette and microwave • Captivating design and indie narrative vs. Marriott brand consistency • Social energy and programming vs. quiet, residential feel • Premium positioning targeting experience‑seekers vs. utility‑focused extended‑stay guests

...

the gap isn’t rate, it’s character

the white space Village West draws millions of visitors and has no hotel that belongs to it. The competitive set splits two ways: select-service properties selling proximity and free breakfast with no bar, no restaurant, and no reason to be in the building except sleep and themed properties selling an idea imported from somewhere else, tropical, waterpark, fantasy suite. Both are honest about what they are; neither has anything to do with Kansas.

The gap isn’t rate. It’s character. No hotel in this district is made from Wyandotte County, and none is trying to be. The Dotte is the only property built from the county’s own materials, history, kitchens, and people - which makes it not a better version of what’s here, but the thing the district has been missing since it opened.

bound together. known by name. always welcome

T R I B U T E P O RT FO L I O H OT E L

K A N S A S C I T Y, K A N S A S

The Dotte at Kansas Speedway Brand Story