In 2023, 100 years after the Epperson home was built, the University of Missouri-Kansas City began the hunt for a developer to engage in a public-private partnership to restore and reopen the historic house located on Volker Campus. The Gothic Revival-style mansion was designed by the architect Horace LaPierre and constructed from 1919 to 1923 for Kansas City insurance tycoon Uriah Epperson and his wife, Mary. For many years, it served as their capacious family home, with approximately 24,000-square-feet on five levels. It was acquired by the school in the 1940s to serve as a dormitory for Navy pilots in World War II, then as housing for university students, and finally as home to several university schools and programs. Closed since 2011, the request for proposal was answered by a local group composed of Sunflower Development Group, Kansas City hospitality veteran Jen Gulvik, and Kansas City-based architectural firm Generator Studio. They won the opportunity from UMKC to proceed with their proposed plan to keep the historic heritage of Epperson House alive, while transforming it into a 14-room boutique hotel with a café, small library bar, full-service restaurant, intimate event space, and a hydrothermal spa offering body and facial treatments and European baths with hot and cold therapies.