DANIEL HILL
The first floor of KDHX's building will soon be folded into the Kranzberg empire.
The space, which currently houses a bar/cafe and small venue space called the Stage, both operated by KDHX, will be used for a purpose that is so far unannounced.
"KAF has entered a long-term market rate lease of the first floor that will be used for a specific intended purpose that will be announced at a later date," a spokesperson for the Kranzberg Arts Foundation tells RFT in an email.
The cafe and venue space was initially conceived as a money-making endeavor for the station, which was gifted the building in which it now resides in 2013. Though the building itself was free, the cost of the move and renovations came out to just shy of $5 million, with only half of that money raised before the station took the leap.
Since then the bar and cafe space has taken on a few forms, including as the Squatter's Cafe, which was operated by Bulrush chef Rob Connoley from November 2017 to October 2018.
The venue, meanwhile, has consistently been operated by KDHX, with regular shows by artists of both the national and local variety.
The cafe and venue were touched on by some former employees in RFT's July cover story detailing allegations of mismanagement and racial insensitivity on the part of KDHX's leadership, with one former employee claiming that the cafe was not only not generating money, but was actually hemorrhaging it. KDHX's leadership denies all of those claims.
We've reached out to KDHX for comment. We will update this post if we hear back.
