The Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center Board of Directors will examine how the historic Taylor’s Chapel AME Church building may fit in with its plans for the arts center.

Amy McGowan, current owner of the historic building at 314 E. Seventh Ave., met with the SKyPAC board Thursday to gauge the board’s interest in the facility.

McGowan bought the building in 2005 at auction for $64,500, with the intention of restoring it as a restaurant, art gallery or museum.

Since then, the 136-year old brick building underwent extensive repair work that resulted in a new roof, new windows, newly tuck-pointed brick and internal repairs.

In 2007, McGowan put the building up for sale, hoping to find an investor who could capitalize on surrounding downtown redevelopment plans.

The building, which sits on the block where the city has purchased land for SKyPAC, was pulled off the market in January, with a listed price at the time of $500,000, McGowan said.

Yesterday, McGowan told the board she will again seek a buyer for the property but first wanted to give SKyPAC officials a chance to see whether the church would fit into their plans.

“I would hate to have a buyer come in there that wasn’t going to complement what you were trying to do,” McGowan said. “If I’m going to have a $38 million business, I think I’d like a little bit of control as to what would go in there a year from now or 10 years from now.”

In the time since the building initially went up for sale, McGowan said she has fielded numerous inquiries of varying seriousness from potential buyers.

Board member Jack Sheidler asked whether McGowan would be open to optioning the church to SKyPAC. McGowan indicated she was receptive to the possibility.

“We’re open to discussion on any front with SKyPAC at this point before we decide to move on in another direction,” she said. “I know you’re trying to raise money, not spend money, but I know you don’t want to roll the dice with your future, either.”

Discussion between the church owner and SKyPAC will remain open while the board consults with Holzman Moss Architecture, which prepared the conceptual design for the arts center and has been commissioned to oversee the project through construction.

SKyPAC project manager Mary E. Carpenter said representatives from the New York architectural firm are tentatively scheduled to visit Bowling Green on Sept. 23, at which point they will be shown the property.

“The only thing we can do at this point is let our architects look at it and see what their advice would be about incorporating the building into their plan,” Carpenter said.

For many years, the building served as an anchor for Bowling Green’s African-American community. Taylor’s Chapel was one of the earliest AME congregations in this area of the state.

The church relocated in 2001 to 503 Clay St.

In other business Thursday, Carpenter discussed a series of meetings Aug. 19-20 with local arts organizations, school superintendents and representatives from Western Kentucky University’s theater department to learn how they would like to use the performing arts center and what they would want to see.

“The superintendents really want children’s education efforts at the performing arts center with classes, and of course they want to have high school performances there,” Carpenter said. “The biggest challenge is to get buses in and out.”

Carpenter, Capitol Arts Alliance board chairman Barry Williams and Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon also met in Owensboro with Zev Buffman, president and CEO of the RiverPark Center, the performing arts center there.

Carpenter said Buffman told the group that Bowling Green needed a 1,600-seat theater.

Buffman produces Broadway shows in Owensboro that are then played at performing arts centers in several cities. Carpenter said Buffman was interested in an arrangement among SKyPAC, RiverPark and the Carson Center for Performing Arts in Paducah that would allow scheduling Broadway shows as one group, which Carpenter said would give SKyPAC more buying power when it came to scheduling performances.