The Next American Dream : Kansas City : A Documentary Film

June 25, 2005 | Kansas City Star

‘Major step forward’ downtown:
Sprint Center work begins

“The citizens of Kansas City deserve a quality facility. If the budget can’t make it a quality facility, it needs to be increased.”

-- City Manager Wayne Cauthen

The revival of downtown Kansas City passed another milestone Friday when dignitaries broke ground for the new Sprint Center at a sweltering ceremony with plenty of pomp.

Organizers pulled out all the stops. Strolling vendors handed out lemonade and popcorn, roller-hockey players faced off on a temporary rink, the Marching Cobras swirled through their drill routine, and the principal speakers arrived on a giant front-end loader.

The more than 200 people in attendance were sheltered from the heat by a white canopy set up at the six-acre construction site at 14th Street and Grand Boulevard.

Across Grand to the west, the concrete skeleton of the new H&R Block headquarters was rising. Adjacent, the deep hole for a garage serving the Kansas City Live entertainment district was being dug.

“This is another major step forward in the revitalization of downtown Kansas City,” Mayor Kay Barnes said.

“The combination of the new arena with the H&R Block world headquarters, the Power & Light District including Kansas City Live will create a spectacular new district downtown with something for everyone.”

While some important details, such as the final arena design and its cost, remain a bit squishy, it was a festive day that culminated four years of discussion, planning and deal making. Voters approved funding for the 18,500-seat arena last August.

Earlier in the day, City Manager Wayne Cauthen said the city was still refining the arena design and working with its construction company, M.A. Mortenson Co. of Minneapolis, to bring it closer to the $250 million budget target. It is expected to closely resemble drawings made public a month ago.

Cauthen would not rule out the possibility the budget may go up.

“I feel the citizens of Kansas City deserve a quality facility,” he said. “If the budget can’t make it a quality facility, it needs to be increased.”

Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Los Angeles company teaming with the city on the project, said he signed the final development agreement for the project only minutes before the ground-breaking ceremony.

“In the very near future we’re going to show everybody the design,” he said. “No one will be disappointed.”

In his remarks at the ceremony, Leiweke said Anschutz remained enthusiastic about the project, which it believes could land an NBA or NHL franchise and provide entertainment capable of attracting audiences from a four-state region.

“We’re building projects in London, Berlin, Los Angeles and New York, but I must tell you the most excitement I’ve ever seen, the most electricity I’ve ever seen in any community, is right here in Kansas City for the Sprint Center.”

In a separate interview, Leiweke said interest had been expressed for a dozen of the 72 luxury suites that will be in the arena. He also said top officials at the NHL and NBA had been briefed about the design and were impressed. The president of the Women’s National Basketball Association was at Friday’s ceremony. There is also an effort to get an Arena Football League team.

“I’ll bet you by the time we have our next press conference to show the design, which I think will happen in the next two months, half the suites will be spoken for,” Leiweke said.

Cauthen got chuckles from the crowd when he referred to how the downtown arena was an issue in 2003 when Stan Glazer challenged Barnes in her re-election bid.

“When I came here to interview, I saw signs saying no to the arena,” he said. “… I understood what arenas and baseball stadiums and other things do for your downtown.

“I’m so glad that particular candidate did not fare very well in the election so that we have an arena.”

The latest estimate as to when the arena will be completed is late summer or early fall 2007. The President Hotel is expected to reopen as a boutique hotel this fall; the H&R Block headquarters is scheduled to open next summer; the first four blocks of the entertainment district are expected to open in fall 2006; and the remainder should be finished by the following spring.

Construction on a ballroom for Bartle Hall is expected to be completed by summer 2007. Discussions for a new Performing Arts Center continue; preliminary drawings for developing the project at the Lyric Theater site are expected to be released in August.

“This is a renaissance in the city,” Cauthen said. “No other city in the country is facing this type of development.”