(Image: Century Ballroom)

Wilder, Kuperman, and Cockrill — You can watch the announcement here

There is new hope for a new dance at Capitol Hill’s Century Ballroom.

Two months after announcing they would not renew their lease and were ready to end the three decade run of the popular dance venue inside Capitol Hill’s Odd Fellows Hall, Century’s Hallie Kuperman and Alison Cockrill have announced a group has stepped forward with a plan to continue the space’s long history of social dance while stabilizing the business.

“When we reached out to the universe and said, if there’s a way to save this space as a dancing space, let it come forward, and this person came forward,” Kuperman said in this week’s announcement.

The group led by Seattle event producer Eliza Wilder says it is negotiating a new lease for the building’s Grand Ballroom and West Hall and plans to fill the venue with dances and classes while growing the event space rental component of the business.

“I’ve been dancing at Century Ballroom for 15 years. It was the first place I went dancing when I moved here as a fresh-eyed 18-year-old,” Wilder said.

In the announcement, Wilder said she had been searching for a home for an event business — but never thought she would take on something at Century’s scale.

“So we started setting plans in motion, and at the point in time that I heard what was happening with Century Ballroom, I was actively looking for spaces. And kind of really in a very strangely fortuitous way. I wasn’t originally planning on taking on something quite this big, you know,” Wilder said. “I heard what the rent was and was like, okay, well, that’s about five times what I was planning on paying. But sometimes you just have those really crazy ideas and I kind of said what the hell.”

The new plans do not include continued operation of Century’s sibling Tin Table restaurant — a search for a new business to eventually fill that space is underway.

The new venue will have a new name as the Century Ballroom comes to an end after 28 years of business on Capitol Hill.

CHS reported here in November as Kuperman and Cockrill announced their plans to close Century citing the ongoing business challenges around sustaining a large dance venue and paying Capitol Hill rent. In 2017 after the building was listed for sale for $30 million, CHS reported that Midby Companies, a developer of commercial properties, was under contract to purchase the property. That deal never closed. King County records show the property continues to be held by the Schroth family who acquired the structure in 2007 for $8.5 million.

Developer Ted Schroth undertook an extensive overhaul of the building. In 2017, as Century marked its 20th anniversary, Kuperman told CHS the period after Schroth’s acquisition was one of the biggest challenges in the club’s history as she guided the ballroom through a long run of building renovations, new tenants, and changes to parking, which hit Century hard.

Just as the dust started to settle, Century was hit again. This time with $90,000 in “dance tax” penalty fees. “It was a complete waste of energy,” Kuperman told CHS in 2017. “It took us out of what we do for a long time… but with the dance tax, we actually changed a law, and that was pretty phenomenal.” Since, the queer-owned Century Ballroom persevered through the pandemic and the challenges of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest playing out on the street below in 2020.

The building is also seeking a new path for one of its street-level spaces. CHS reported here in October on the closure of the Fleet Feet running store after 20 years of business and weekly “fun runs” across the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, two years of construction have started next door for the Broadway Center for Youth affordable housing and job training academy development from YouthCare and Community Roots Housing.

In the Odd Fellows Hall, Wilder and her group have launched a fundraiser to help support the transition and overhaul the business. “As rents go up, venues disappear, and we live in an increasingly uncertain world, our access to dance, creative expression and connection become even more essential. Together we can truly do big, beautiful things,” it reads.

Until a lease is secured nothing is certain but Century and the group are talking about a transition starting in April that would include separate closures of the ballroom and the West Hall so classes and dancing can continue while overhaul work is completed.

Century, meanwhile, is preparing to say goodbye with a blowout 28th anniversary party in March

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