Kiel rehab gets key aldermanic approval
The Kiel Opera House took a key step to new life Wednesday.
A subcommittee of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen gave the green light to a $74 million proposal to rehab the Kiel, a week after they had put the brakes on it for further study.
An agreement with St. Louis Blues owners Sports Capital Partners now will move on to the full Board of Aldermen for a vote that could come as soon as June 5.
The proposal was made public less than two weeks ago, and at last week’s meeting of the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning subcommittee, several members objected to the quick turnaround. Given another week, they made a few changes to the plan Wednesday, which SCP agreed to.
A key change is an extension of the cap on the number of Broadway-style touring shows that can be shown at the Kiel. The cap is designed to protect the Fox Theater in midtown, which runs about 100 touring Broadway shows a year and whose owners have raised objections to the roughly $60 million in public subsidies that SCP wants to rehab the Kiel. The cap was extended from three years to five after a meeting Tuesday between Fox owners, SCP and city officials.
SCP partner Ken Munoz said the cap, which limits the Kiel to 36 Broadway shows in its first year and 64 in its fifth, is a "quite meaningful" concession, but that he was confident that there will be enough business for both theaters to thrive.
Not so, said Fox Associates president Richard Baker. There just aren’t enough touring shows coming out of Broadway to support both theaters, he said, and the cap on shows won’t do much to help the Fox cheap car insurance. Wednesday’s vote, Baker said, was a disappointment, but no surprise.
"It’s what we expected," he said. "We’re not happy with it, of course."
SCP also agreed to give the city right of first refusal if it decides to sell its rights to Kiel.
The only vote against the plan came from Alderwoman Marlene Davis, whose ward includes the Fox. She objected to the rushed nature of negotiations, and the lack of involvement by aldermen, and apologized to both sides for the hard feelings generated over the last week.
"This project needs to happen, but not the way it did," she said. "We can do much better."
If the full board approves, as looks likely, hurdles remain. SCP will need to secure and then sell $28.6 million in tax credits. It also will have to sell $29 million in bonds in a tough credit market. Trouble selling bonds is what has stalled the Cardinals’ Ballpark Village, though Munoz said the smaller, single-use Kiel should have an easier time.
SCP hopes to start construction in August and reopen Kiel in late 2010, in time for a four-week holiday run of its show: "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
Filed under: business by Guru