Dallas — Great news for one of North Texas' longest-running champions of new plays, Kitchen Dog Theater. The group will become one of the few local theaters to own its space, after announcing the purchase of a 10,000 square-foot space in the North Design District, a brown warehouse currently occupying Presidio Tile, near Inwood Road and Irving Boulevard. The deal has been signed and funds are still being raised.
There are only a few theaters paying a mortgage on their space, rather than rent, including Theatre Three, Dallas Children's Theater, Bishop Arts Theatre Center and Fort Worth's Amphibian Stage Productions. In fact, the architect behind Amphibian's handsome space, Gregory Ibañez (the husband of Amphibian Artistic Director Kathleen Culebro), has also made the initial designs for Kitchen Dog's new home, which will include a 140-seat flexible theater, plus office, rehearsal and shop space, and a cabaret space. (Ibañez's firm seems to getting more theater business, as it's also designing a new space for Ennis Public Theatre.)
Kitchen Dog Theater was founded in 1991 by Southern Methodist University students and graduates, and after roaming through various spaces, spent most of its history at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Uptown. That building was sold and recently razed. The K-Dogs spent most of last season in the Green Zone in the Design District, with two productions at Undermain Theatre.
The target move-in date is 2018, which means Kitchen Dog will spend its 26th season, which just opened with A Stain Upon the Silence: Beckett's Bequest, and most or all of the 2017-18 season, in its temporary home at the Trinity River Arts Center, just a few miles across Interstate 35E from where the new Dog house will be.
Below is the news release from Kitchen Dog Theater:
After 26 years performing ground-breaking works for the Dallas community, Kitchen Dog Theater will soon be breaking ground on a house of its own. The company recently closed on a property that will become its permanent performance, office, rehearsal, and shop space. The new 10,000 square-foot Industrial Flex building is located at 4774 Algiers St. in the North Design District of Dallas.
“Theater companies like ours around the country are challenged by the whims of local real estate market, so we are extremely grateful to be able to put down permanent roots in our hometown,” said Tina Parker, Co-Artistic Director. “This development gives us the financial and emotional security to continue our Artist-driven mission - to provide a place where questions of justice, morality, and human freedom can be explored – for many years to come.”
The company worked with the Ibañez Architecture firm on initial designs to convert the current home of Presidio Tile into a 140-seat performance space, company offices, and a rehearsal space that could also double as a cabaret. 2018 is the target move-in date. Generosity from The Real Estate Council Community, The Communities Foundation of Texas, The Harold Simmons Foundation and private donors made the $975,000 purchase possible.
Harry Wynne, III represented the previous owner of the property, Capote Properties, L.P. Kitchen Dog Theater was represented by Diane Williams of DW&CO and Elizabeth Solender of Solender/Hall, Inc. 
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