Harvey C. Perry, a senior vice president with the Washington Trust Co., has served on the board of directors of the Westerly Land Trust since it was founded in 1987. He spoke with Providence Business News last week about the nonprofit’s acquisition and planning process for the redevelopment of a former theater in Westerly.
PBN: Let’s start with the background on the United Theater project.
PERRY: The former United Theater – we acquired that about two years ago in deplorable condition. It had been abandoned since the mid-1970s and the roof was badly leaking every time it rained, which created a hazardous condition with falling plaster and so on.
Thus far, we have been working on two things: we’ve been working on securing the building and doing some preliminary planning for what could happen there to adaptively reuse the structure.
The building was originally built in the 1920s as a vaudeville theater and then converted to a movie theater. But because it was originally built as a theater, it has a stage and a fly loft. It originally seated 990 people, which is extraordinary for what the size of the community would have been in the 1920s.
PBN: What work have you done so far?
PERRY: To secure the building, we have so far stopped the water from coming in – and we’ve largely succeeded. We then decided that we had to take the ceiling down for safety reasons and in order to do that we had to take everything else out. So we have a lot of light fixtures and seats and everything else in storage.
PBN: What might those plans entail?
PERRY: We’ve worked with an architectural firm [Connecticut’s Centerbrook Architects] and come up with some preliminary ideas about how the space could be divided and used.
More recently, we’ve found an opportunity to acquire some additional space in a building next door, adjacent to the theater. As we’re working toward the possible acquisition of that property, we’ve held off on doing further work on the design because if we’re successful in acquiring that structure, or a portion of that structure, it would have a significant impact on what we would want the design to be.
We also have had some communications with some performance groups to explore what groups might want to use the space and how often and what they would need in order to use it. We’ve talked with a number of theater and musical groups.
PBN: Are those local groups?
PERRY: They’re primarily local, with some in Connecticut and upstate Rhode Island …there’s a ballet company in Connecticut that’s interested and there are several theater companies in Rhode Island interested in using the space. There’s a relatively well-known blues band that’s interested.
So we’re very excited about all this and our plan, at this point, is to conceptually expand the stage forward to create some more space and then divide the theater space into two or more spaces. We’re thinking in terms of a possible 400-seat theater where the stage and fly loft are, then one or two other smaller theater or other performance spaces for other activities and public events and gatherings. We think there’s enough space for that, particularly if we acquire the building next door.
PBN: Are you using federal tax credits?
PERRY: We are going to be exploring that. We’re exploring whether we’re creating a partially for-profit entity that would be involved with the theater, which would make the federal tax credits useful. If not, the other possibility would be to sell a portion of those credits to others who could use them.
PBN: Are there cost estimates?
PERRY: We’ve had a range of cost estimates, but again it would depend a lot on the resources that come to the table. But it’s going to be in the millions and it’s going to be an exciting thing.
PBN: How did the WLT get involved with the project?
PERRY: We began as a conservation organization … bout three years ago, working with some outside partners, we decided to expand our mission to include what many would include “smart growth” development projects in the downtown Westerly area. … If we can make downtown Westerly more fun, more attractive, more convenient, people will have more reasons to live in town as opposed to buying a lot out in the forest and building a house in the woods. •
