‘Let’s go to the Boone’: $8.7M revival of 18th and Vine theater resumes after long delay

It’s a plan that’s been years in the making — restoring Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine’s 100-year-old Boone Theater back to its former prominence with an $8.7 million development project.

The district, known for being a home of Black businesses and a hub of jazz music in the mid-1900s, is still on a journey to reinvent its former glory, as the city and local businesses invest in development of the area.

18th and Vine is already home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum. The resuscitation of Boone Theater will create a historical triangle, with the theater sitting caddy corner to the museums, increasing the district’s momentum towards recreating its famous past, according to one of the members of the group involved in revitalization efforts, Shawn Edwards.

“You will have these components of Black culture that put America on the map and became a global phenomenon,” Edwards said. “I don’t think people realize just how much Black people have contributed to the motion picture industry. When people visit Kansas City, you have this really cool historical corridor, where you can just learn about Black culture and how it affected music, sports and movies. I don’t think you can do that in any other city in the world.”

There have been several plans to revive the dilapidated building throughout the years. So far, none have totally gotten off the ground. Currently, the three-story theater building is filled with rotted-out ceiling tiles, wallpaper falling off brick walls and bars on the ground in preparation for construction.

Previous Star reporting showed Kansas City officials dedicated $20 million to the district in 1989, but many buildings remained vacant and ramshackle. But development is returning to the area, like the recent opening of One Nine Vine, an apartment complex at 1901 Vine St., which brought 80 market-rate apartments to the area late last year.

Three members of the group leading the Boone Theater effort, Shomari Benton, Jason Parson and Tim Duggan, formed Vine Street Collaborative LLC to invest in their beloved district. They began with a revitalization project at 2000 Vine Street, by turning the city’s first public works building into a mixed-use space that houses offices, event spaces, Black-owned brewery Vine Street Brewing Company, and the Warren Harvey Art Gallery.

Edwards, a longtime Fox 4 television movie critic, is the creative brain behind the Black Movie Hall of Fame, which is planned to be housed inside the theater once the renovation is complete.

The city opened a request for proposal on Boone Theater’s redevelopment in 2020. Vine Street Collaborative was selected for the development the next year, but closed on the property in 2022. Two years later, the groundwork behind the scenes has been laid so construction can begin near the end of October.

The group first got together with Duggan, a founding partner of architectural firm Phronesis, and started reaching out to his Beacon Hill neighbor Benton about potential projects. An outreach effort to contact community members, advisors and mentors led to Parson coming into the fold as well.

The group knows they still have a big job ahead.

“This is going to be a heavy lift. We need to put together the right group of patient folks to make this work,” Duggan said. “Through the lens that I have with urban planning, could see development was coming for a mile away, and it could be done worse, or it could be done with by example.”

Finally, the four-year process of planning and up to two years of construction could see the vision for Boone Theater’s revitalization come to fruition for this group of Kansas City natives, all part of their push for 18th and Vine to become a prominent, nationally-known cultural corridor. For them, last Thursday’s groundbreaking signified an important next step in the plan to make Boone Theater a catalyst for turning 18th and Vine back into Kansas City’s Black mecca.

‘Dancing with the Jazz district’

Boone Theater first opened as the New Rialto Theater in 1924 and was renamed in honor of famed Black pianist John “Blind” Boone. It was converted into an armory in the 1940s and has been decommissioned since 1978, Duggan said.

The theater did have some use with filmmaker Robert Altman placing facades on some abandoned buildings on the south side of 18th St., including Boone Theater, for his 1996 movie, ‘Kansas City’. Kansas City’s investment returned in 2013 when they agreed to spend $140,000 on renovation, and $1.2 million more in 2016 to stabilize the building in hopes of converting it into an event space.

ArtsKC – Regional Arts Council and the Downtown Council received a $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011 to repurpose the building for a new Folk Alliance International headquarters. The Folk Alliance headquarters wound up moving from Memphis, Tennessee to 509 Delaware St., and since has settled in at 601 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, according to previous Star reporting.

Part of the delay in construction after closing on the purchase was due to fine-tuning of issues: building stabilization analysis, submission for historic tax credits and environmental testing, to name just a few. The federal and state historic tax credits are crucial, with $3.2 million in tax credits making up around 45% of the $8.7 million budget. Duggan estimates $1.5 million will go strictly towards stabilizing the structure at 1701 East 18th Street.

“I think that the time it took is pretty standard, for better or for worse,” said Benton, who is a real estate development attorney who plans to move his firm into the building. The tax credits also come with a minimum five-year commitment to sustain the project.

The city sold the building for $10 and will provide a 25-year property tax abatement. The trio credits past city manager Troy Schulte for getting the city to assist the group with their 2000 Vine project, which led to the city entrusting the group with this enterprise.

“If there was ever an example of government helping and then not being an impediment of progress, I think our story tells it,” Parson said.

The project also has support from local politicians like U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri’s 5th Congressional district representative, who made it a priority to revitalize the district during his tenure as mayor from 1991 to 1999.

“The revitalization of the Boone Theater further cements the 18th & Vine District as one of America’s most significant cultural sites,” Cleaver said in a statement.

“By bringing additional expressions of high culture to the heart of Kansas City’s Black community, this project will breathe new life into the area and represents a giant leap toward restoring 18th & Vine to its former glory. It is my hope that this development is a sign of things to come, and that before long, the Crossroads Art District will be dancing with the Jazz District,” Cleaver said.

“I am thrilled that the Boone Theater will rejoin the 18th district and be the center of film and theatrical art,” 3rd district at-large Councilmember Melissa Patterson Hazley said. “This will be a lovely compliment to other developments happening in the area such as the Zhou B Art Center and an expanded Negro Leagues Museum. I am looking forward to spending time at this location with my family and friends.”

‘A band of brothers’

Construction on Boone Theater is slated to begin before the end of October, and is expected to last between 12 to 18 months. When complete, the theater is expected to have an event space that will be able to hold around 600 people. The ground floor will house the Black Movie Hall of Fame and nonprofit Soul of Santa. There will also be micro-offices that will house the Black Repertory Theater KC, multimedia production company DistrKCt, and Benton’s law firm, Benton Lloyd Chung, LLP.

Black Repertory Theater, Black Movie Hall of Fame and Soul of Santa will all have shows in the event space as well.

Edwards, who co-founded the Kansas City Urban Film Festival and created the African American Film Critics Association, hopes to open the Black Movie Hall of Fame in February 2026. Kansas City natives actor Don Cheadle and actress and singer Janelle Monae are among some of the big names in the inaugural Hall of Fame class — announced in April — which also includes Harry Belafonte and Chadwick Boseman.

“This is the thing that I want to live beyond me,” Edwards said. “People can go and learn the history of Black cinema and explore it and learn about it and be entertained by it.”

Edwards also wants to show classic Black films like ‘Cooley High’ or ‘The Wiz’ on a regular basis in the theater, along with potentially hosting film festivals. The Black Repertory Theater will look to put on stage plays, while digital media production facilities and other offices will also be housed in the building.

One of the few pictures Benton has of his grandparents is from the 1950s. His grandparents had their picture taken in the Boone Theater when it was a theater-restaurant and bar called the Scott Theater. Having that picture and hearing those stories growing up is part of what drives his efforts with this project.

“To go through the fires that we’ve gone through, it’d be difficult, not impossible, but difficult to do that if you didn’t have some personal history,” Benton said.

“We’ve been a band of brothers for years,” said Parson, who is president and chief executive officer of his own public relations firm. “I certainly feel personally committed to seeing this district not only continue, but to thrive. To do it with these two gentlemen who’s just as committed to this district and making sure, not only it certainly looks like this ownership group reflects the community, but the history of it.”

The process has been lengthy but typical, according to the group leading the charge for the theater. If the plan follows through as hoped, it will be a dream come true for the group to contribute back to the community they grew up in.

“During the day, people go in and take tours of the Black Movie Hall of Fame and learn about the history of film,” Edwards said. “At night, come back and watch a cool movie, and then the next day, come back and watch a stage play.

“We want people to always [say], ‘Let’s go to the Boone and celebrate us.’”

The Star’s Dan Kelly contributed to this reporting.

This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 11:40 AM.