Town Board authorizes potential sale of Vail-Leavitt Music Hall

It has been almost two years since Riverhead Town repossessed Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, and the historic space has remained unoccupied ever since. However, after two potential buyers recently presented their visions for reviving the 144-year-old landmark theater, town officials ultimately voted Wednesday night to begin contract negotiations with The Jazz Loft.

Riverhead town attorney Erik Howard confirmed the decision is not a “final determination,” but rather gets the process started for scheduling a qualified and eligible sponsor hearing, negotiating a contract of sale, securing appraisals, obtaining surveys, title searches and insurance and completing any other necessary documentation to sell the property. 

Mr. Howard noted that proposals from any other potential buyers can still be considered during these contract negotiations, but added that approval of the resolution allows the town to proceed with a public hearing on the sale. 

The decision to move ahead with The Jazz Loft offer followed much debate among board members, with councilmen Bob Kern and Kenneth Rothwell voting against the resolution due to concerns about the nonprofit relying solely on state grants for funding, limited variety in its genre of entertainment offerings and lack of public feedback on the proposed sale. 

“I do want to activate [The Vail-Leavitt] as soon as possible, but I think suddenly … there’s a race to the finish line here, without really getting insight on what the public needs,” Mr. Rothwell said.

Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard and councilwomen Joann Waski and Denise Merrifield voted with full support and confidence in The Jazz Loft, pointing out the support the nonprofit has received from the Riverhead community.

“The way that I see this is: ‘At Last’ we have somebody fully committed, vetted, able to go into the Vail-Leavitt that wants to see it come back alive again,” Ms. Waski said. “I don’t want to see it a year or two years from now, us still kicking it down the street — I want to see The Jazz Loft come in here and make beautiful music, I want to go there and I want to sing Ella Fitzgerald.”

Thomas Manuel, president and founder of The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, said he has met multiple times with the Town Board over the last 16 months and gave a presentation on his vision for historic music hall at an April 10 work session.

“The vision is really to create a hub of activity to serve the community and to embody [Riverhead] Town’s slogan: ‘Work, stay, play, eat and live,’” Mr. Manuel said.

For the past nine years, the Jazz Loft has served as a social “home base” in Stony Brook, presenting a variety of jazz music styles and hosting more than 200 events annually, including the Swing Into Spring Festival in March and the free Harbor Jazz Festival. Its museum holds 30 archival collections from well known jazz performers, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett, as well as other rotating art and photography collections.

The nonprofit’s tripart mission is to provide performance, education and preservation, and “advocate for the American-born art form called jazz.” Mr. Manuel said he hopes to transform “The Jazz Loft @ Vail” into an “incubator for educational events, collaborations with area arts organizations and businesses.”

The Jazz Loft’s operators estimated that the reopening of the Vail-Leavitt would create one to two full-time and two to five part-time employment opportunities. If the theater were to host one show per month with approximately 150 people attending, The Jazz Loft @ Vail could potentially bring in an annual revenue stream of at least $89,000. That figure could increase to $356,500 if the facility hosted even more performances.

“The purpose and agenda of a successful theater in a community has always been and continues to be a place for collaboration within a community,” Mr. Manuel said. “Over the last 25 years we’ve seen all of these [historic] theaters turn into these wonderful performing arts venues and all of them have been successful because they have embraced the identity of their community.”

Like the Vail-Leavitt, the Jazz Loft building in Stony Brook is also a registered historic site, and in 2014 the nonprofit launched a capital campaign to restore the building. They then undertook a $500,000 renovation and held a grand reopening one year after building permits were secured, Mr. Manuel said.

He assured board members that the nonprofit is “incredibly financially sound,” with a budget of more than $1 million for the purchase of the Vail-Leavitt. Following that acquisition, Mr. Manuel said, the nonprofit would rely on state grants to fund the renovations.

The Jazz Loft founder added that there needs to be “caution and care” when it comes to restoring historic buildings, so his proposed timeline will be subject to change. However, he said if the purchase goes through in the next month or so, he expects renovations can begin in early July and a grand opening can potentially be held by this fall.

Prior to Wednesday’s resolution to move ahead with the Jazz Loft, the board had been considering a separate bid from Raymond Castronovo. A local musician and owner of the Riverhead-based construction company Zenith Group LLC, Castronovo owns several historic properties in Riverhead and has restored multiple old homes and buildings in the area, including the Odd Fellows Lodge at 220 Roanoke Ave.

During his presentation at the April 10 work session, he mentioned support he has received from multiple connections in the music industry, including Mark Chroscielewski, a South Jamesport resident and founder of music venues Irving Plaza in Manhattan and Warsaw in Brooklyn; prominent concert promoter Ron Delsener; and Gary Hygom of The Suffolk. He also has experience working with grant writers on affordable housing projects and would use their expertise if he needed help obtaining entertainment grants.

“I hire people who are experts to handle all the different tasks to run the theater,” Mr. Castronovo said. “We want people to come into the streets of Riverhead, make it a destination, and not just a pass through.”

To foster Riverhead’s growth, Mr. Castronovo proposed an inclusive venue for all types of entertainment and music genres. He said he wants to create a space for concerts, performances, film festivals, comedy shows, acting classes, community events, a podcast studio and kids entertainment. He mentioned having connections to Broadway performers, as well, who he said would be eager to perform at the Vail-Leavitt.

Financially, Mr. Castronovo said he has “the horsepower” to get the Vail-Leavitt operational and sustainable, and would make his finances available for the Town Board to review, if requested.

“If I am granted the opportunity, I am going to make the Vail-Leavitt proud and bring it back to life,” he said. “When you start to see these type of [performers] starting to come out to the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, there’s going to be an opportunity for a lot of people to follow.” 

Both Mr. Kern and Mr. Rothwell spoke in support of Mr. Castronovo, describing him as a successful individual who has already invested in Riverhead Town. Mr. Chroscielewski, who is in partnership with Mr. Castronovo, also spoke at Tuesday’s Town Board meeting prior to the vote about his experiences in the music industry and how he could help create a “thriving music scene” in downtown Riverhead.

Ms. Merrifield called Mr. Castronovo’s proposal “a hope and a prayer” that only offered only possibilities, not a concrete plan like The Jazz Loft put forth. When Mr. Kern suggested tabling the resolution and issuing a formal Request for Proposals, Mr. Hubbard shut the idea down. 

“We’re not going to hang on to that property for another year, paying for heat and maintaining it and hoping that the roof doesn’t get worse or anything else. It makes no sense to me, not at all,” Mr. Hubbard said. “We’ve been doing this for over a year, if [buyers] were interested, they should have stepped up.

“We reached out to our channels, and that’s who we got,” he continued. “We’ve got somebody that is more than perfect for this scenario. If we didn’t, I would agree with you wholeheartedly, but The Jazz Loft, in my mind, is a proven entity.”