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The Houston Ballet plans to consolidate all of its offices and rehearsal space, as well as its Ben Stevenson Academy, in a proposed $53 million building downtown.

The building would be on Smith Street, catercorner to the Wortham Theater Center, where the ballet presents six programs and a monthlong run of The Nutcracker each year. It also rents studio and office space at the Wortham, while its main offices and rehearsal studios are at 1912 W. Gray, near River Oaks.

Plans call for an elevated skywalk to connect the proposed 120,000-square-foot project to the Wortham. No construction or completion dates have been set, pending the outcome of fundraising, ballet managing director Cecil C. Conner Jr. said Tuesday.

"One of the great benefits in moving downtown near the Wortham would be being in close proximity to the Wortham all the time instead of having to go back and forth between two locations," Conner said.

The Houston Ballet Foundation, which operates the company, owns half of the block bounded by Smith, Louisiana, Preston and Congress. The foundation purchased the entire block in May 2007, then sold the unneeded eastern half to a developer. A parking lot now occupies the block.