RECENT COMMENTS
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
Eric S. Huffstutler on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
Yvette Cannon on What is up with the Church Hill Post Office?
crd on Power Outage on the Hill
Imagine this theater on 24th Street
12/20/2011 11:47 AM by John M
Conceptual designs for a local theater company’s new home focus on engaging the community of historic Church Hill. An old brick garage adjacent to a public park is expanded and renovated to include a spacious lobby, outdoor seating, offices and an intimate and adaptable performance venue with plenty of room backstage.
The Henley Street Theater Company is currently working out of the Pine Camp Cultural Arts Center on Old Brook Road, and was looking at moving to 24th Street. This idea first popped up a few years ago; the last info I have is over a year old – does anyone have any updates?
Its a great idea!
I’m surprised this building hasn’t been renovated/reused yet. What an ideal location for the Henley Street Theater Company!
That would be fabulous!
I also remember word on this. Wasn’t there something happening with the theater on 25th too?
I always thought it would make a cool brewpub. Nice space in a good area.
How cool would it be to see a show and walk to one of our restaurants for dessert and a drink afterward? I haven’t heard anything about this for over a year, either. If there’s anything neighbors can do to help out, let us know!
Hello from Henley Street!
Henley Street Theatre was unable to pursue this space due to a couple of variables that in the end proved to be cost prohibitive:
1. In order for us to develop the theatre into the kind of space we need to fulfill our mission, we were wanting to ‘pop’ the roof and make it into a two story building. This would allow for rehearsal studios as well as offices on the upper level. However, there were issues with regards to zoning as well as historical tax credits that were deemed cost prohibitive.
2. Another developer in the area was looking to produce some condos within close proximity to the theatre and was wanting to share the parking lot with the theatre. Since that developer was wanting to move on his project immediately, we were unable to act on our initial plan to carry out our longer term strategic plan for a capital campaign. We felt it prudent to exercise responsibility here, as non-profit planning tends to not move as fast as for profit business.
The sum of these issues resulted in a massively increased projected budget, which our board of directors found unfeasible at this time.
We’re sad that this space didn’t work out for us, (aren’t those renderings amazing?) but we’ve learned a great deal and forged a lot of terrific new relationships along the way. So while we’re working towards a different location, we’re still working with the same game plan and a larger pool of resources than we had before.
Currently, we are performing at SPARC at 2106 N. Hamilton St. and in the spring we will be performing at Richmond CenterStage’s Gottwald Playhouse. If anyone in the Church Hill community is interested in joining our effort to find a new home, we’d love to hear your ideas! But what we’d really love is for you to come out and support live theatre by checking out one of our shows. This is our fifth anniversary season and we’d love to share our art with you.
Up next:
LORD OF THE FLIES – By Nigel Williams – January 26 – February 25 (SPARC)
THE LIAR – By Pierre Corneille and David Ives – April 5 – April 28 – (CenterStage)
YELLOWMAN – By Dael Orlandersmith – May 24th – June 16th (SPARC)
http://www.HenleyStreetTheatre.org
—
James Ricks
Artistic Director
Henley Street Theatre
917.804.2640
http://www.henleystreettheatre.org
@ James Ricks -> What were the specific zoning issues?
I hope Henley Street hasn’t completely given up on the site yet!
Too bad, this plan looked like a nice fit in the neighborhood and the popped roof wasn’t objectionable because of the setback from the facade.
Is this a done deal as far as not happening?