Cyrus Hotel, one of the anchoring projects of Topeka’s downtown revitalization efforts, officially broke ground Wednesday, celebrating the building phase with golden sledgehammers and the announcement that one of the city’s largest businesses is investing in the development.

Security Benefit CEO Michael Kiley said his company is one of multiple investors in the $25.3 million Cyrus Hotel project.

"Security Benefit is pleased to be an integral partner in the continued revitalization of downtown Topeka and eagerly awaits the day the Cyrus Hotel will serve as a focal point for Topeka companies and our guests from near and far," Kiley said.

City and county leaders joined investors and the numerous people it takes to get a project the size of Cyrus Hotel off the ground at the Wednesday noon event to celebrate not just the hotel, but what it means for the downtown.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail,’ " said Matt Pivarnik, president and CEO of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce. "Emerson is speaking to a special kind of human which we refer to — it’s one of my favorite kinds of humans — as a trailblazer. Cody Foster and his partners are creating a trail with the Cyrus Hotel. The groundbreaking of this hotel is a massive step in creating a vibrant downtown. But we aren’t done. I want to challenge you all to be encouraged by the vision and guts of Cody and his team and the Cyrus Hotel project. Follow the trail he is creating and continue to grow our downtown and our Topeka region."

Demolition has already begun in the 900 block of S. Kansas Avenue where the Cyrus Hotel will be located, and digging into the older buildings there has meant a few plan changes, said Cody Foster, founder and owner of AIM Strategies LLC, which is developing the hotel. It was initially planned to maintain the original facades of the buildings.

"Nine-twenty (S. Kansas), once we started demolition, it was a disaster," Foster said. "We’re going to have to tear it down and completely redo it. We will keep the design."

Seth Wagoner, CEO and CFO of AIM, said the building apparently sustained significant damage in the 1966 tornado. It would have added a lot of time to brace it and save the facade, so they instead decided to rebuild it to look as it originally did. They plan to save some elements elements, including a medallion that features a baby. The building originally was built in 1914 to house an orphanage, the Kansas Children’s Home Society, according to a 2012 downtown Topeka historic survey.

Other design changes to Cyrus along the way have been previously announced, including the addition of two floors. Initially, it was thought the number of rooms would jump to 106, but Foster said there will be 109.

The time line also has pushed out a little, with expectations the hotel will open in summer 2018, Foster said.

"We announced this project a year ago, and at the time we literally had a sketch and an idea for what we wanted to do. Announcing it maybe before we were quite ready to led a lot of people to think that we were starting the next day. The truth was, a lot of the heavy lifting was still to be done," he said.

Since then, Foster said, they’ve been working with Architect One and others to assess the buildings and determine the best way to proceed to save what can be saved.

Wagoner said the project contractor, McPherson Construction, is "methodical and careful" in dealing with the older buildings.

"We’ve uncovered the surprises before we started construction," he said.

Wednesday’s groundbreaking, which used gold sledge hammers rather than shovels given the amount of stone on the property, celebrated the official move forward with the project, and also honored the partners making Cyrus Hotel a reality. David Bowd, CEO of Salt Hotels, is consulting on design and brings international expertise in creating boutique hotels. Foster said he recently stayed in one of those hotels when he was traveling.

"Two weeks ago I was traveling for work and realized I was going to be about 20 minutes away from Asbury Park, so I went and stayed at the Asbury Hotel to see what it was like," he said." I left there more excited about the Cyrus than I’ve ever been. David oversaw the build out of the first new hotel in Asbury Park in over 50 years. Everywhere I went, when I told people where I was staying, they raved about the hotel. But what I saw, that was more exciting to me, was how they built it as a community gathering spot. People were there working, at night people were at the bar, even though it was off season, it was the activity spot in the area."

Foster said Bowd had enough success in the industry to be able to pick and choose his projects and that it was important he chose Topeka.

Bowd, who told those gathered that he was a "super hotel geek" who had been in the industry for 32 years, said he was drawn to the Topeka community from the beginning.

"To me, the fundamentals of a hotel are what we’ve been talking about today, which is the community," he said. "As we look at different projects, we have sort of a mantra of interesting projects with interesting people in interesting places. The first time I came to Topeka, it ticked all of those boxes. I think there is an absolutely — we’ve seen it over the last year — the desire and a passion for a new hotel to be successful here, for it to be really part of the community."

Bowd also said the hotel would begin hiring staff next year.

"The soul of a hotel are the people who work in it. I’m super-excited to start our recruitment drive as we go into 2017," he said. "We will be hiring over 100 people, full-time and part-time, and who better to show visitors coming into the hotel the best side of Topeka than people who live here. We’ll be launching a hospitality school, a Salt school, which will start in early ‘18, and that is a program to train and develop people who have not necessarily been in this industry before, but who have a true passion for hospitality and guest experience."

Foster expressed his appreciation to project investors in addition to SBG: Brent Boles, president and CEO of Schendel Pest Services, and Angie Boles; Matt McPherson, president of McPherson Contractors Inc., which also is a Cyrus Hotel contractor; Eric Bettis, president of Bettis Asphalt & Construction Inc., and his family; along with multiple investors who are part of the Advisors Excel team, Jake Klima, Matt Neuman, Shawn Sparks, Brad Johnson, Brad Lindstrom and Jordan Canfield.

Contact reporter Morgan Chilson at (785) 295-5659.