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Recession Slows Theater’s Plans
by Paul Bass | Mar 18, 2009 4:40 pm
(3) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Business/Labor/ Economic Development, Recession
Long Wharf Theatre postponed its audition for an architect — slowing progress toward a new home that’s a centerpiece of New Haven’s downtown plans.
Long Wharf plans to build and move to a new $45 to $50 million home on 1.5 acres of the 4.5 acres of land that became vacant when New Haven demolished the Coliseum in January 2007.
Board President Mary Pepe (pictured) said Wednesday afternoon that the theater decided to postpone a request for qualifications it issued for an architect to design the downtown theater, which like the current Long Wharf location would have a 500-seat main stage and 200-seat second stage.
Long Wharf needs to reassess how much money it can raise, when, and how to go about it, Pepe said.
“We needed to take a temporary pause and regroup. We needed to pull back and look at everything,” Pepe said. “The economic downturn has made us think we have to revisit our strategies and our timelines.”
The state has so far chipped in $750,000 in planning money. Eventually the state has promised to contribute $30 million toward the project. Long Wharf promised to raise $15 million to complete the construction cost, plus another $15 million to build an operating endowment.
A consultant’s feasibility report issued last summer concluded that that task is doable. Then came the Wall Street crash.
Now the theater will hire another consultant to revise the plan for fund-raising.
It originally planned a formal launch in September for the endowment campaign. That’s now on hold. A soft launch has drawn $5.5 million, according to Pepe.
Like other not-for-profits, Long Wharf has seen its general donations drop over the past months. Regional theaters usually depend on contributions for about half their budgets, ticket sales for the other half. Theater spokesman Steven Scarpa said ticket sales have held steady in the recession. He said Long Wharf expects donations to fall 15 percent below the $3 million budgeted for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
A second reason to delay hiring an architect: Long Wharf is looking for a new managing director, who will play the leading day-to-day role in the overall project.
Meanwhile, Long Wharf is immersed in negotiations with the city and with Northland Investment Corp. The city chose Northland last fall as the preferred developer for the overall Coliseum site — a project tentatively titled “The Tenth Square.”
It’s unclear at this point if Northland will build the theater portion of the project. The city reached a memorandum of understanding with Long Wharf that it would pursue discussions with Northland aimed at having the developer build the theater, according to city Deputy Economic Development Director Tony Bialecki. Those talks are proceeding. Long Wharf and Northland face a December deadline to settle the question.
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Comments
posted by: lance on March 18, 2009 7:07pm
I hope they allow mainstream music acts to play there when it’s finally done.
posted by: Nancy on March 22, 2009 8:17pm
It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good.The poor performance of the stock market will now force the Long wharf Board of Directors to look more carefully at moving. Some of us believe that if a survey was taken, most patrons of the theatre would like to have it expand right where it is. Plans indicate it will be the same size, but those of us who have like the convenience of on/off the highway—usually stopping for food, before or after the show—don’t look forward to trying to find convenient parking competing with other performance venues and restaurants in the City. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! works here. If retrofitting is what is needed, do it in conjunction with the new highway in the same area, and with ample parking. Is anybody listening?
posted by: robn on March 23, 2009 9:45am
NANCY,
If you haven’t been downtown for dinner you’ve missed a lot. There are some really great restaurants and bars. It might be worth the extra few minutes it takes to ascend into a parking garage. A great meal would enrich your theater experience. And the area where the new theater is planned is only about a 30 second drive from I-91 and I-95 with easy on off.
