B&B Mainstreet Theater

[ComandanteCero]

GREAT news (atleast i think so)! Makes me proud of the leadership and continued vision our city is experiencing (ok that's a little too generous since i'm sure they would have knocked it down if the figures were right, but why not delude myself)

Empire block proposal quashed

By KEVIN COLLISON The Kansas City Star


A proposal to build a new headquarters for Kansas City Power & Light's parent company on the Empire Theater block has been rejected, preserving plans to renovate the landmark building.

Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes said Wednesday that while city officials will continue to work to keep KCP&L downtown, the Empire Theater block will remain part of the Kansas City Live entertainment district and be redeveloped by the Cordish Co. of Baltimore. Cordish wants to reuse the old vaudeville and movie theater palace as a live music venue and lounge.

“We want this to be a win for Cordish and a win for KCP&L as they consider downtown,â€

[QueSi2Opie]

Awesome! As someone who loves history and historic structures, I can only nod my head with Jane Flynn's final statement.

[KCPowercat]

glad DST didn't push hard on this because the city would have collapsed with all the leverage DST has at this point.

build it one block west and I'm OK with it, as long as it doesn't come with HUGE tax breaks.

Hmmmmm, here's an idea. They mention the hotel also being planned for that block. 1000 room hotel AND some office space for Great Plains energy? Now there is a plan I can get down with.

[GRID]

This is awesome news.

KCP, it would be awesome if they actually got creative now and built KC's first modern mixed use building with office, hotel and residential and even retail incorporated into it. It would not become a striking addition to the skyline, but a very active and important black vs just office space. Plus is would help justify using tax breaks.

[rxlexi]

great news! I was really worried there for a bit that KC was going to lose yet another historic chunk of it's downtown fabric. It will be wonderful to have the Empire in the future, especially as it's located in what will no doubt be a very modern and perhaps characterless development (fingers crossed, i hope not). My question is what will be placed on the other half of the lot (the west side), parking?

[Deleted User]

.

[staubio]

The development proposal called for the facade of the old theater and its distinctive dome to be saved, but the office building would occupy the remainder of the site. KCP&L would have owned the building.

I'm not clear why this would have been such a bad thing. The theater and dome would have been saved. Isn't that good enough? I would love to see a new office tower next to P&L and the critical mass, density and workers/pedestrians it would bring. As long as the theater and dome was saved, I don't see what the issue would be. The entire building will have to be gutted and a completely new interior and 1/2 of the exterior will have to be constructed either way. The only part of that structure that will be saved with Cordish is the Main St side exterior and dome. I guess I'm hoping now that they go 1 block west with the new tower.

I think part of the benefit here is that it returns it its entertainment roots. This makes the Empire a building that everyone can enjoy regardless of whether they work for KCPL or not. It is arguable that a successful music venue and bar would create more activity and density than an office building that empties out at 5 PM. I'm all for more night-oriented density (residential and entertainment) to balance the daytime stuff (office).

[Deleted User]

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[trailerkid]

...regardless the KCP+L office workers will be very close to the P+L district whether they stay in 1201 Walnut or build on that other site.

[ComandanteCero]

michael it would only have been the facade and dome, ie no theater. It would have just been more office use with an old timey facade and a dome. By being a live music venue and lounge it will be much greater asset to the area. And as tk said, they are still within a couple of blocks of the area so their people can probably walk to the area very easily. I doubt they'll move outside the loop since the company has a lot at stake in the area real estate wise.

[KCPowercat]

Here's what somebody needs to propose for the Great plains energy home. This proposal in Nashville:

http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho ... adid=58355

Exactly what we were talking about with a mixed use tower.

[FangKC]

The Empire Theater is a historic structure -- older than the Midland. It is the only Rapp & Rapp-designed theater in Kansas City. Rapp & Rapp were among the four top theater designers in the country in the early part of the last century. Kansas City has examples of theaters from four of the most famous theater designers in the country: Rapp & Rapp (Empire); Thomas Lamb (Midland); Boller Brothers (Granada in KCK), and John Epperson (Uptown).

Kansas City is the only city left in the US that has that distinction to my knowledge. Many of the remaining Rapp & Rapp theaters are being renovated across the country. However, these cities don't have example of all four architects' work. The renovated theaters have brought back the theatre scene to cities like Chicago, Denver, St. Louis, Cleveland, Portland, and Seattle. The Rapps designed around 400 theaters nationwide, and only about 40 remain. Some are still imperiled. I wrote a letter to the Historic KC Foundation and Mayor Barnes informing them of this rare distinction and pleading for its complete preservation.

The interior can be saved. Union Station was in terrible shape. Much of the elaborate plaster work had fallen off and big holes were in the ceiling. The upper roof structure leaked and the iron beams were nearly rusted through. Still they saved it and returned the station to it's former glory. The same can happen with the Empire. Theaters in much worse condition have been saved.

These "save the facade and dome" schemes are just lazy attempts to appease some preservationists and appear to be saving historic buildings. It is a farce. They will slap up a cheaply made square box behind the facade that won't match the original building in any way. It will be like they did with Jenkins Music Co. on Walnut across from the old Jones Store. It's part of the 1201 Walnut garage. And just like they did with the facade that is part of Office Max or Office Depot on Main Street north of 39th St. What will be lost is the ambiance of the old theater interior, and it will be replaced with an ordinary, run-of-the-mill interior that will look like a club in any city.

If the Empire is demolished except for the facade, the city will lose an architectural distinction that no other American city has. The loss will be immeasurable.

Accept no substitutes.

[FangKC]

The Business Journal ran an article last week about Larry Bridges, who controls the Empire Theater property.

Holdings give Bridges a key downtown role
Jim Davis
Staff Writer

Pay attention to Larry Bridges.

The president of Executive Hills Management Inc. might prove to be an arbiter of how Kansas City's sweeping downtown redevelopment will unfold. Interests tied to Bridges control two pivotal pieces of property in the Kansas City Live entertainment district -- the Empire Theater and ground next to the former Jones Store Co. building, northeast of 13th and Main streets.

The city headed off a plan by DST Realty Inc. to use the Empire and adjacent ground to build a headquarters for Kansas City Power & Light Co. But obstacles still stand in the way of using the Empire as a live music theater and lounge in the Kansas City Live entertainment district.

Bridges could not be reached for comment about his intent for the Empire, which he bought in 1986 from movie theater magnate Stan Durwood.

Charles Miller, a lawyer with Lewis Rice & Fingersh LC who represents Bridges, said he and his client are talking with Kansas City officials about selling the Empire.

"We're engaged in good-faith discussions with the city and trying to resolve open points," Miller said.

The fate of the site near the Jones Store building could complicate those negotiations. The block has been condemned -- an ignominious fate for property where Bridges had hoped to build parking as part of a deal to get Overland Park-based Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. to move its headquarters to One Kansas City Place, which Bridges also controls. That pursuit failed in November 2003, despite having been embraced by Kansas City officials.

Bridges now stands to lose control of the Jones Store block property, which he also acquired from Durwood. The condemnation may be completed in as little as a month. Miller said this prospect has had an effect on talks about the Empire.

Andi Udris, CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said he's not deterred. He said he's weighing an offer Bridges made to sell the Empire before DST's proposal for KCP&L's headquarters surfaced during the summer.

Condemnation never has been considered for the Empire, Udris said. He declined to reveal how much Bridges wanted for the theater, but its location across the street from where H&R Block Inc.'s headquarters will open in 2006 multiplies its value beyond an appraisal of $831,210 by Jackson County.

The sale could be hastened by action taken by the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City at its Oct. 13 meeting, Udris said. The EDC-staffed commission wants DST and KCP&L to develop property the companies own on Baltimore Avenue immediately west of the Empire and just outside the entertainment district. DST bought an empty office building at 1400 Baltimore Ave. from Kansas City Life Insurance Co. on Sept. 29. That building is adjacent to a KCP&L building.

Officials of DST and KCP&L either were unavailable or would not comment on their interest in pursuing the TIF Commission's co-development designation. This proposal's greatest significance could lie in what it doesn't contain -- a stake for Bridges.

The property also has been identified for another use: a 1,000-room convention hotel. The proposal came in the Destination KC Convention Center Plan study that HNTB Architecture and BNIM Architects are conducting for the city.

The city is having an easier time assembling other property for the entertainment district. On Sept. 23, the TIF Commission bought a building at 1307 Baltimore Ave. that Trans World Airlines once used. The building, bought in September 2003 by loft developers Lou Trigg and Roger Buford, will be demolished to make way for stores and parking, Udris said. The configuration hasn't been set, but H&R Block will have air rights for 15 years to expand its headquarters atop what is built on the site.

Reach Jim Davis at 816-421-5900 or jdavis@bizjournals.com

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... st=s_cn_hl

[FangKC]

glad DST didn't push hard on this because the city would have collapsed with all the leverage DST has at this point.

With all the development that is already underway, one wonders if DST will continue to have as much leverage as it has had previously with the City. When the development ball gets rolling and picks up speed, other developers begin to take an interest in doing projects. Cordish already has 70 percent of the space pre-leased in P&L Live, and has been able to choose preferred tenants. When other developers, especially outsiders, hear about Cordish's leasing success, and how much building is going on in downtown KC, then other projects might be forthcoming.

When the City has the benefit of having multiple developers and investors interested, then one or two real estate developers who've called the shots in the past are no longer as powerful. This is a good thing because the City no longer has to accept crappy proposals, and politicians are less inclined to fear individual developers.

DST has been good to Kansas City in many ways. However, I don't like any situation where a city has to rely on one or two developers to get anything going.

[FangKC]

The city has purchased the Empire Theater. Yay!

Now it's out of the hands of Larry Bridges.



Kansas City buys Empire Theater
Jim Davis
Staff Writer
Business Journal of Metropolitan Kansas City
December 30, 2004

Kansas City reached an agreement today to purchase the Empire Theater, the city's economic development leader said.

Andi Udris, CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, said the agreement gives the city ownership of almost all of the Kansas City Live entertainment district.

The seven-block district surrounds H&R Block Inc.'s new headquarters under construction southeast of 13th and Main streets.

The Empire, 1400 Main St., is owned by interests tied to Larry Bridges, one of the largest downtown landowners. Udris said Bridges also has agreed to sell a surface parking lot northeast of 13th and Main streets.

Udris and Charles Miller, a lawyer with Lewis Rice & Fingersh LC who represents Bridges, declined to comment on the proposal's amount or other terms.

Bridges' group bought the Empire in 1986 (then let it rot for 18 years) from Stan Durwood, then CEO of AMC Entertainment Inc. in Kansas City. The Empire, which opened for vaudeville in 1921, became a movie theater and closed in 1985.

Udris said he expects DST Systems Inc. soon to sell property it owns next to the Empire to the city. Udris said Tom McDonnell, DST's CEO, told him the conveyance was imminent when they spoke during the week of Dec. 20.

DST officials could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

DST had angered historic preservationists during the summer, when the company proposed using the Empire to build a headquarters for Great Plains Energy Inc., owner of Kansas City Power & Light Co. (soul-less infidels).
That idea subsequently died. (good triumphs over evil)

Kansas City Live's plans call for the Empire to become a live music theater.

Udris said the only other parcel remaining for the city to acquire for Kansas City Live contains a state of Missouri office building at 1411 Main St.

That purchase will require the Missouri General Assembly's approval. Legislation probably won't take effect before April, causing what Udris estimated as a six-month delay in when he had hoped to take ownership.

Kansas City Live's anticipated opening in the summer of 2006 won't be affected, Udris said.

Separately, he said, the city continues talking with officials of Time Equities Inc. about the amount to be paid for the former Jones Store Co. building south of 12th Street between Main and Walnut streets.
In November, condemnation commissioners appointed by the Missouri Court of Appeals determined the shuttered department store's value was $6.2 million.

The city, contending the value was $2.5 million, agreed in December to pay the higher amount but contest the price before the Missouri Court of Appeals. Udris said Wednesday he hoped to settle with Time Equities.

Officials of the New York-based real estate company, which bought the property in December 2003, couldn't be reached.

Also awaiting a Court of Appeals hearing is the city's condemnation of property for H&R Block. The Penner family, which was forced to sell a building at 1331 Main St. housing American Formal Wear Co. Inc. and a former haunted house at 1327 Main St., rejected a $750,000 award proposed by Udris. Earlier, in June, condemnation commissioners had offered $593,000.

[staubio]

Fang, I think I want to have you add footnotes to all of the news articles I read.

[FangKC]

Actually Staubio, I've always thought it would be funny to have a national online news portal that reported all the news, but inserted sarcastic remarks by a group of resident smart-asses.

It would not be like The Onion, which mocks the news with outrageous stories. Instead, the news articles would be written in a traditional manner with all the relevant facts. Then the smart-asses would insert their comments in colored text. It would be sort of a representation of what everyone who reads the stories are really thinking, and it would provide a satirical take on what's happening in our society.

One thing about news reportage is that historically, you cannot re-read it and sense the "real" mood of the people reading about the events as they happened. There reactions and feelings are rarely captured. For example:

Will Nation Put a Stop to Alcohol Sales? (nice pun, huh?)

Carrie Nation (self-righteous bitch) led another anti-tolerance raid on bars in Kansas City this week (all that good hooch gone to waste). Nation, as part of her ongoing temperance campaign (aw, she lost her temper), brandished an ax as she crashed through the plate-glass window of a tavern along Union Avenue (crap, that was my favorite watering hole) in the West Bottoms (such a refined lady she is).

She lead a angry mob of women and outraged evangelical churchgoers (speaking in tongues no doubt) into an act of civil disobedience (why wasn't she arrested for vandalism, breaking and entering, and creating a public spectacle?) aimed at stopping the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages (what if we gave the hooch away for free, and charged for rental of the bottle, or glass?).

As passage of the 18th Amendment banning the sale of alcohol nationwide (fuck, now what are we going to do for fun?) looms on the horizon, Nation (doesn't she know that alcohol is our only escape from domineering, caustic fish-wives like her?) has accomplished what many thought was impossible (that a nosy busybody with nothing else to do could goad sensible people into voting for an idea that is doomed to fail?).

Many of Nation's opponents (mostly drunkards; enlisted military personnel; teenage boys; lonely bachelors; desperate housewives; French, Italian, and Irish immigrants; any resident of New Orleans; and tavern, nightclub, and brewery owners) believe that Prohibition will only create a black market for the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol ("like, duh"). They worry that the criminal underworld (Al Capone, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., Johnny Lazia, the Pendergasts) will seize control of the banned industry, and turn it into a profitable enterprise that will lead to increases in crime in every American city (as well as all sorts of illicit fun).

"There is no possibility that the authorities can control, regulate, and police the illicit sale of alcohol," said local politico and tavern-owner (right, honesty incarnate!), Thomas Pendergast. "The city will make every effort, but it's an impossible task (Don't worry, this will never be enforced in my town). Every grain farmer in America has the resources to circumvent this law. We cannot send law enforcement into every basement and wooded hollow in the Ozark Mountains to ferret out these black market moonshiners (this will be good for the regional economy, and for crooks like me)."

National experts in police enforcement (unemployed cops and prosecutors) agree that the federal government does not have enough resources to carry out enforcement efforts (meaning we don't pay cops enough to not take bribes to look the other way). One official in the prosecutor's office, who requested anonymity because of his job (the janitor), said, "With the farm economy so unprofitable now (because of prices kept low and manipulated by robber barons), farmers are going to be getting into the moonshine business out of economic necessity. We are essentially turning honest men into criminals (don't act shocked if I can now afford one of those horseless carriages, and vacation home)."

Economists are predicting a major loss of jobs as the alcohol industry tries to quickly convert their breweries into the manufacture of other products (meaning that we'll lay everyone off, break the unions, and hire people back at slave wages).

A local police officer put it this way. "Instead of solving murders, rapes, and burglaries, police are going to be spending all their time chasing after people who want to have a drink, and old widows making bathtub gin in tenements," (and my fellow officers and I will be engaged in bribery and corruption) he said. "We've also handed organized crime a license to print money, which will in turn lead to turf wars between gangland factions (we can play both sides against the other; however, it will be harder to drink on the job now)."

Enaction of the proposed 18th Amendment awaits confirmation by the legislatures of two more states. It will then be voted on by Congress, where it reportedly has enough support to pass (these guys will keep on drinking anyway, and many of the political bosses that got them elected will get rich). It will then go to the White House, where the President has indicated that he will sign it into law (then he'll go pour himself and his cronies a nice cocktail).

Supporters of the amendment say (every mafia boss in the country; bathtub and tommy-gun manufacturers; and Mexican border towns) the alcohol ban (who do they think they're fooling?) will strengthen communities and families (yeah, can I sell you a good, used horseless carriage as well, you gullible hick?), reduce violence (not among the gangland types), and the economic distress caused by alcoholism (thank God morphine and cocaine are still legal).

Local reactions by the public are mixed. "This will be good for the country," said one community leader (hopefully, the alcohol ban will discourage the Irish from immigrating here). However, one man standing outside a tavern on W. 12th Street put it in more personal terms, "My social life will be impacted terribly (I can't get girls drunk anymore and take advantage of them. I'm screwed)."

[Tosspot]

The closest thing I've seen to that is The Pitch's Strip article every week. They bold parts, though still it's really not quite the same- not enough caustic remarks. Fish-wives! I love that.

[KansasCityCraka]

Check it out. I t is on at the 6pm news and I'm sure later tonight.

[staubio]

Will this be between mention of how the city "still hasn't solved murder number 63" and various other "the city is scary" scare-"journalism", whether those stories have any newsworthy developments or not?

I'll pass on watching this trash, even if they do feature something positive for once.