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.
I hope they allow mainstream music acts to play there when it's finally done.