(The following editorial appeared on The Kansas City Star website on March 3, 2010.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The superbly renovated Union Station turns 100 years old in 2014. So will that birthday be a cause for celebration — or for lamenting what might have been?
Be positive, and prepare to celebrate, especially if Union Station leaders follow their clear and correct priorities for the station’s future.
The station’s pragmatic supporters include energetic chief executive George Guastello as well as board chairman Mike Haverty, the Kansas City Southern Railway chief executive, who recently said of Union Station: “It’s not going down on my watch. It’s not.”
Among recent realistic moves, station leaders have slashed employment, put off plans to update the Science City museum and pulled back on traveling exhibits. Over the last three years, the total deficit has been pared to less than $1 million. By contrast, the station rang up a total operating deficit of more than $50 million in its first seven years of operation.
Still, more time and more smart moves are needed to ensure that the station — which Kansas City area residents properly saved from the wrecking ball with a bistate tax in 1996 — becomes a long-term success story.
To do that, Union Station’s leaders must follow through with good plans to:
• Fill up more of the building’s vacant space with paying tenants.
That would help put additional people in the building on a 9-to-5 schedule, creating ready-made customers for the station’s restaurants and entertainment venues. It’s not enough to put large employers such as the Internal Revenue Service nearby; Union Station simply needs to have more people inside it on a regular basis.
• Find private operators for more of the station’s restaurants and entertainment offerings.
Union Station officials realize they don’t need to be in the business of running many of the building’s venues. It’s notable that one of the station’s success stories is the privately run Pierpont’s restaurant.
• Focus on promoting core entertainment offerings.
Science City, the Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium, the H&R Block City Stage and the KC Rail Experience offer a range of activities for visitors to enjoy.
The big problem is that not enough people pay to enjoy them. Station leaders must continue marketing the venues for potential customers.
• Continue seeking private assistance to operate the station and bring in special exhibits, while carefully studying a potential tax request in future years.
Backers of the station constantly point out that successful reuses of large train stations, such as Cincinnati’s Union Terminal, often depend on public support. But Kansas Citians already spent $118 million to renovate Union Station. Any future tax proposal likely would have to benefit a broad range of the city’s or area’s cultural attractions, not just Union Station.
With the right kind of focused leadership, Union Station’s centennial will be an occasion for area residents to congratulate themselves for saving an integral part of Kansas City’s past while creating a useful building for future generations to enjoy.