The historic Boone Theater in Kansas City’s 18th & Vine Jazz District will have a ground-breaking ceremony Oct. 17, marking a significant milestone in its long-awaited revival and promising a new cultural hub for the city.
The groundbreaking ceremony signals the start of construction on a multifaceted entertainment complex. The project, spearheaded by Vine Street Collaborative, aims to transform the 45,000-square-foot building into a mixed-use space that will house the Black Movie Hall of Fame and the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City.
In addition to an indoor and outdoor movie theater, the $7 million project will include a co-working space, outdoor event space, outdoor food truck space, a digital media lab, and mini-YouTube studio.
Shawn Edwards, the project’s programming partner, envisions a unique venue with space for hosting themed events, film festivals, and Oscar parties. This is in addition to stage plays from the Black Rep and first-run & classic films in a state-of-the-art movie theater.
“One night, you can go watch a movie, and then the next night, you can go watch a stage production,” says Edwards. “The quality of what we’ll be bringing is going to be top-notch; nothing like that exists in Kansas City.”
Project History & Ownership
In 2020, the Vine Street Collaborative was chosen through a city request-for-proposals to rehabilitate the historic theater at 1701 E. 18th St. into a mixed-use event space. The terms of the project have been negotiated and the city council approved the development agreement on Oct. 1, 2021.
Under the terms of the development agreement, the city sold the Boone Theater property to Vine Street Collaborative for $200,000. The city will support the project with a 25-year property tax abatement of up to 10 years at 100% and then 15 years at 50%.
Partners in the Vine Street Collaborative are:
Jason Parsons, CEO of Parsons + Associates, project management and communication professionals.
Attorney Shomari Benton, a real estate attorney with Benton, Lloyd and Chung, LLP
Tim Duggan, founder of Phronesis, a landscape, urban planning, design, and infrastructure firm.
Boone Theater History
The 45,000-square-foot Boone Theater opened as The New Rialto Theater in 1924. It served as a vital piece of the commercial and entertainment center created by the Black community in the Historic Jazz District.
In 1929, it was renamed the Boone Theater in honor of John “Blind” Boone, a blind Black composer and concert pianist from Missouri whose music influenced Kansas City jazz.
Construction will begin shortly after the groundbreaking ceremony and is expected to take 12 to 15 months to complete. Edwards says that the Boone Theater intends to be operational in time for a soccer film festival leading up to KC hosting the World Cup in summer 2026.
