Authority may take over historic VMA property

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Convention Center Authority is poised to take over the Veterans Memorial Auditorium (VMA) under a proposal that would see the separate management groups for the authority and the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) share the burden of operating the historic 1,931-seat theater near the Statehouse.
The authority would take over the auditorium from a nonprofit foundation, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium Foundation, which has leased the theater from the state for $1 a year since 1992. Six workers at Veterans Memorial, including Executive Director Tereann Greenwood, were dismissed as of June 30 in anticipation of the changeover.
The authority, a quasi-state agency, is working with the R.I. Department of Administration on the terms of a contract that would transfer the lease from the VMA foundation to the convention center authority, according to James McCarvill, the authority’s executive director. The State Properties Committee was scheduled to consider the transfer at its meeting July 22.
The owners of the Renaissance Providence Hotel, which is attached to the VMA, must approve the new arrangement, McCarvill noted. &#8226