In Thursday’s (9/17) Kansas City Star, Alice Thorson and Steve Paul report, “It has been almost 3 1/2 years since the Kansas City Ballet decided on the Union Station Power House as the site of its new Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity. Now the organization is ready to start transforming the dilapidated historic structure, at 400 W. Pershing Road, into an airy work and performance space. … The Ballet’s announcement that construction was under way amounts to an upbeat signal in the current period of economic caution and a strong statement of the company’s intention to raise its profile. Just in recent days, the Ballet and the building’s owner, DST Realty, pinned down financing for the project, including about $11 million in state and federal historic tax credits. The Ballet has signed a 65-year lease for the building. The 22-month construction schedule will bring the project to fruition about the same time as the $405 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts gets ready to open about four blocks north. The Ballet will be a major performing tenant in that project but will house all its other activities in the new Bolender Center.” The Kansas City Symphony, which currently performs at.. and will move into the Kauffman Center when it opens, serves as pit orchestra for the Kansas City Ballet.
Posted September 18, 2009
