KC landmark again fights for its life

By Jeffrey Spivak

The Kansas City Star

Sunday, May 9, 2004

Everyone thought Union Station had been saved.

The metropolitan area passed a special tax for it. The long-vacant landmark reopened to great fanfare just five years ago. And it became the community's gathering place again.

Suddenly, however, it is at a crossroads.

Running out of money and time, Union Station's leaders are asking taxpayers once again to save Kansas City's historic icon.

In the last decade, the station ‹ benefactor of the nation's first bistate tax and the region's then-largest fund-raising campaign ‹ was renovated with a science museum, theaters, restaurants and shops.

Today the building teeters on the brink of insolvency. If the Kansas City Council does not act by May 25 to place a property tax increase on the August ballot, Union Station's future becomes bleaker.

How did it get to this point?

The answers are not simple. But according to former managers, civic leaders and station supporters, the financial crisis stems from a series of misjudgments, flawed forecasts, vanishing expertise and, ultimately, lax leadership.

And it's such a shame to so many people.

Eleanor Gribble is old enough to have shared in Union Station's two lives: its glory days as a train station to its spectacular renovation. Gribble says the station has been a valuable part of her life and a beloved symbol of our community's heritage and togetherness.

³It saddens a native Kansas Citian like me to see a beautiful landmark like the station so threatened,² she said. ³I so want the station to succeed, for it's a part of history we should cherish and be so proud to have in our city.²

The station's board is tapping all remaining financial reserves just to make it through this year. And on top of the $118 million in local taxpayer support used for the renovation, board members want roughly an additional $100 million to keep the doors open.

To raise that, they are considering two possible elections: one in August for the city property tax increase that would raise $5.5 million a year and then grow for a decade, and another in November for a new regional bistate sales tax that could promise the station $2 million a year for 15 years.

Neither tax issue is sure to get on the ballot, let alone be approved by voters.

The station's management has scheduled public hearings for Monday and Tuesday to make a case for the additional tax subsidy. One point they will bring up is that every other major science center in the country receives some ongoing taxpayer support.

The timing of the station's request, however, gives city officials only two more weeks to put the issue on the August ballot.

³It's kind of a last-minute thing,² said Kansas City Councilman John Fairfield. ³It doesn't give us much time to analyze things.²

Beyond mere money is a larger issue of what needs to be done to make Union Station successful. Nearly everyone affiliated with the station acknowledges it needs more than just a science museum.

Station executives and the board, however, have not yet offered a definitive plan. They have tossed around a few ideas ‹ such as a railroad museum ‹ but have not done feasibility studies on any of them.

Board members, though, are working toward some management changes. They are in the process of finally adding a general manager with museum experience who would help develop new attractions and redevelop Science City. And they are open to allowing three appointees of the mayor to join the board in an effort to ensure future accountability.

In addition, chief executive Turner White's contract was just extended another year. But the board has hired a consultant to help prepare a succession plan covering the station's management and executives. That report is expected this summer.

³I absolutely expect to see the year out,² White said last week. ³The board has expressed to me that we're on the right track. But I'm also mindful that every day is a new day.²

With new leadership and new plans, longtime station supporters believe Union Station will have new hope.

³If they can bring in outside experts to solve their problems, then there'd be public and private support for it,² said Sharon Hoffman, a former station activist and board member. ³We have to. Union Station is one of our greatest achievements.²

What went wrong

By the mid-1990s, Union Station had been closed for years. All sorts of groups had struggled in the 1970s and 1980s to figure out a new use after passenger train travel dwindled.

Then a new generation of local leaders resurrected an old idea to pair the station's renovation with a long-discussed science museum.

A prevailing view among the station's partners emerged: The new museum, conceived as ³Science City,² would be so popular that it would carry the station's massive utility costs on its back.

The science museum's planners and its board dismissed almost every attempt to showcase the building, to draw additional visitors and even to highlight the station's history, former leaders said. They also scaled back ideas to fill the place with restaurants and shops.

³There was this feeling that they wanted nothing else to grow there, to the point that they thought eventually the place should be called Science City and not even use the Union Station name,² recalled Andy Scott, a former executive director.

Added Mary Bloch, the station's current board chairwoman and a board member during Science City's development: ³The biggest reason we are where we are today is that there was way too much emphasis put on Science City's fortunes.²

But the prospect of finally fixing up Union Station brought together big bucks.

Local leaders sold voters on a communitywide effort. It involved $118 million from a regional bistate tax, a nearly equal amount from a private-sector fund-raising campaign and tens of millions of dollars from the federal government.

Kansas City's government, which at one point had owned the vacant station, was off the hook.

In retrospect, ³that was a mistake,² former Mayor Emanuel Cleaver said last week. ³If I had to do it over again, I would have tried to have an injection of Kansas City dollars.²

Still, Science City at the time had great expectations. Then-director David Ucko touted it as a new kind of museum experience.

There would be a cityscape with adventures behind the facades. Visitors would be able to play detective and solve a crime, witness optical illusions or explore nature in a tree house. There would be costumed actors, called ³interactors,² who would guide visitors through the adventures, answer questions, even put on science displays.

But when Science City opened in the fall of 1999, only half of the planned interactors were in place. Science City's executives had discovered the costumed characters cost too much.

Starting on opening day, Science City was flooded with complaints: Visitors did not know what to do. And there weren't signs explaining the science lessons. In fact, there was not much science at all. Instead, Science City was more like a ³playland,² in the words of many.

Lots of folks did not come back. Platte County Commissioner Michael Short's family was typical. When Science City opened, he had three pre-teen children, and they bought an annual pass. But soon the children lost interest.

³There wasn't anything new to draw them,² Short said.

Attendance and revenue plunged. A private-sector endowment could not cover the station's operating deficits, which reached $10 million one year.

Yet Science City was not Union Station's only problem.

All the mangers involved in creating Science City eventually departed, leaving no one in management with museum experience. Local event planners constantly complained about dealing with red tape and a maze of staffers when trying to do business with the station. And many individuals with ideas for more things to do at the station felt they got a cold shoulder from management.

³We wanted to be a featured attraction,² said Greg Hawley, co-owner of the popular Arabia Steamboat Museum in the River Market.

Bloch said the board had asked station executives ³to focus on keeping the doors open.² So CEO White concentrated on cutting staff and spending. But that left little planning for the other side of the balance sheet ‹ how to raise revenue by attracting people.

All this also left an impression with station supporters such as David Peironnet that Union Station lacked leadership. Peironnet gave tours of the station during the bistate campaign. He bought a brick bearing his name for the station's front sidewalk. Anytime friends were in town, they drove downtown to visit the station.

³Should they not be re-evaluating their mission?² Peironnet asked recently. ³Instead, they just dig a deeper and deeper hole, all the while dissipating resources that are desperately needed to get the problems resolved.²

What can be done?

What has happened to Union Station is not unusual. Other large-scale train station redevelopments failed initially.

Washington's similar Beaux-Arts Union Station was turned into a National Visitors Center, but that closed and the station was converted into an urban mall. Cincinnati and Indianapolis tried the mall route first. Cincinnati's failed in the early 1980s and was replaced by a historical museum complex. Indianapolis' closed after another mall opened next door, and the station has filled with schools and offices.

³These larger railroad stations thrive the most when there's a transportation use that brings lots of people through, like in Washington,² said Janet Greenstein Potter, a railroad station historian.

So what is going to happen with Kansas City's station?

The station's board and executives insist that first they must be able to pay the bills and cover a $5 million to $6 million deficit on a $16 million annual operation. That is mostly why they are seeking additional money.

The Union Station organization is combined with the former Kansas City Museum, which operated Corinthian Hall in the Northeast neighborhood. So Union Station already receives a city property tax, but it is dedicated to Corinthian Hall and the former museum's collections.

The tax increase being sought would raise at least $5.5 million a year initially. About $1.65 million of that would go to fix up Corinthian Hall and display local history exhibits. The remaining $3.85 million would be dedicated to the station's heating, cooling and cleaning.

The station's leadership also is hoping for a $2 million annual earmark from the proposed bistate tax to cover the rest of the building operations funding gap.

After the deficit is covered, the station's leaders then can start changing the place with a combination of funds: growth in the city property tax and $1.7 million in expected leases for the planned IRS and U.S. Postal Service space on the station's grounds.

With that extra money, the station's board is considering a three-pronged strategy: revamping Science City, adding new attractions and bringing in new management.

With Science City, much needs to be done. Three years ago station executives hired local museum consultant Gerard Eisterhold to evaluate the museum. Of 28 exhibit areas, he recommended keeping only four ³as is.² He suggested improving or redoing eight others and phasing out the remaining 16. He offered replacement exhibits themed around some of Kansas City's major industries.

Not much was done with the study then. But to Eisterhold, the recommendations remain valid.

³It's not a lost cause,² Eisterhold said last week. ³Science City remains a fundamentally viable concept. It's just a matter of making it work. You need to put the science museum in there. What's there now is not one.²

Station leaders have taken some steps toward change, such as joining with the University of Kansas' Natural History Museum to create a laboratory where bones from a dinosaur named ³Lyle² will be cleaned and prepared for display. It is expected to open this fall.

As for additional attractions at Union Station, its board and executives have so far considered a multitude of ideas. A casino? Union Station is not on the Missouri River, as state law requires. An aquarium? Too expensive. Train buffs think a railroad museum would work. History buffs think the same thing about local history.

Several years ago, Bob Lamb, who helped design Disney theme parks and now is a consultant, was hired to assess the station.

Lamb started his report by noting: ³I am overwhelmed by the incredible opportunities for expanded experiences at Union Station.² But he did not mention another museum. He suggested a much larger mix of restaurants and bars.

³The building's gorgeous, and it's in a good location, and there are things that could be done to take advantage of that,² Lamb said last week.

Before moving ahead on any new ideas, though, the station's board is first moving toward making some management changes.

A national search is being conducted for the new executive to lead Science City. That person could be hired by July. Also, while White just received a bonus for limiting the station's expenses as CEO, board chairwoman Bloch said the board was ³still working on the succession plan² for the station's management.

All these possible changes offer some hope to community leaders that taxpayers will jump on board and save the station once more, if given the opportunity.

³Kansas City has a track record of fixing things when they haven't been a financial success ‹ look at the zoo and the Liberty Memorial,² said Peter Levi, president of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. ³It's a mentality that just because it's in trouble, we don't abandon it.

³I don't think Kansas City will abandon Union Station.²

To reach Jeffrey Spivak, civic affairs reporter, call (816) 234-4416 or send e-mail to jspivak@kcstar.com.