University closes in on new home for KCUR

The University of Missouri-Kansas City announced Monday that it is working on a lease for a new space for KCUR and Classical KC. 

UMKC previously announced Dec. 22 that KCUR’s longtime home would close no later than Jan. 31 after “recent checks showed that the building’s foundation was settling at an accelerated rate,” Stacy Downs, director of strategic communications for UMKC, told Current in January. 

In a Monday post on UMKC’s website, Downs wrote that UMKC is negotiating the final details of a lease for offices in the nearby Country Club Plaza.

The space will be retrofitted for recording rooms and studios once the deal is finalized, according to the post. 

“We thank KCUR employees — and everyone who turns to KCUR for its valuable local programming — for their patience as we worked through this unexpected situation,” said Troy Bruun, UMKC vice chancellor for finance and administration, in the post. “Although the circumstances were challenging in the short term, the outcome for KCUR will be a new office that will be an upgrade for its staff and a convenient location central to everything in the Kansas City metro.”

KCUR and Classical KC GM Sarah Morris said Monday that she could not comment on the new location until the lease is signed. Morris told Current last week that KCUR was in the final stages of reaching a “short-term solution” for staff and broadcast operations. 

“We look forward to working from a new space while continuing our mission of providing the very best in local news for Kansas City,” Morris said in the university’s post.

Station staffers are now working from home, and KCUR’s transmitter and antenna are located elsewhere in Jackson County. Staff and volunteers have relocated the station’s equipment, according to a KCUR story. KCUR and Classical KC are also transitioning to being governed by an independent nonprofit, their university license-holder announced last year.