A divided Riverhead Town Board on Tuesday took the first step toward selling the historic and blighted Vail-Leavitt Music Hall to The Jazz Loft.
The Town Board passed a resolution 3-2 authorizing the town attorney “to take all such actions as may be necessary and appropriate to consummate such sale” of the building to The Jazz Loft. The nonprofit organization previously restored a historic building in Stony Brook built in the 1770s and turned it into a performance venue and music museum.
Council members Bob Kern and Ken Rothwell dissented. They tried unsuccessfully to table the resolution, arguing that the town should open up the process to other potential buyers. They voiced support for the other pitch to purchase the building made by Ray Castronovo, principal of the Riverhead-based Zenith Group.
“My concern is that [The Jazz Loft] lack[s] the funding to restore this theater, which is going to be an immense project, and they’re strictly relying on grants. And I feel that this can go and extend it over many years for them to accomplish that,” Rothwell said.
In 2023, Suffolk County granted $250,000 for the restoration of the Vail-Leavitt, which town officials say will be transferable to The Jazz Loft when it takes possession of the building. The Vail-Leavitt is in need of extensive repairs, according to officials.
“You had another individual that stood before you that was not relying on grants, and I know that he’s a successful man,” Rothwell added. “He’s restored many buildings within our town, and in addition, he’s invested in our town, and he’s offered to bring the right people to the table. And I think that he has the way with all to really complete a great project in an expedited period of time.”
Supervisor Tim Hubbard and council members Joann Waski and Denise Merrifield backed The Jazz Loft, citing its year-long collaboration with the town and commitment to restoring the Vail-Leavitt.
“There have been multiple, multiple opportunities for individuals and organizations to step forward to purchase or lease this property,” Merrifield said. “Everything has fallen apart or not really been what it’s claimed it would be — except The Jazz Loft.”
Both The Jazz Loft and the Zenith Group presented their proposals for restoring and operating the Vail-Leavitt — built in 1881 as an upstairs opera house — at last week’s work session. The building is on both the national and state registers of historic places, and is a town landmark.
In an emailed statement, Jazz Loft President and Founder Thomas Manuel said the group is “very excited that the Town of Riverhead has entrusted us with the next season of the historic Vail Leavitt Theater’s life.”
“It is about to begin a long and very overdue second act and we are thrilled for the future,” he said.
Manuel said the organization’s “immediate vision and agenda for the landmark theater will include renovating and reactivating the historically important venue” after it officially purchases the building.
“A major priority will be connecting with the community and to ensure that our labors are collaborative and build up not just the Vail, but our entire community at large,” he said. “We are eager to see the theater blossom again as a venue for music with a range of styles and also serve as an incubator for educational events and collaborations with area artists.”
To sell the building, the Town Board will need to hold a qualified and eligible sponsor hearing for The Jazz Loft, during which the organization will need to prove it has the experience and financial capability to restore and manage the theater pursuant to the town’s adopted rules. The hearing process is required when board members want to convey land in a designated urban renewal area to a specific entity without a competitive bid.
The Jazz Loft could start renovations on the Vail-Leavitt at the beginning of this summer and be open by November, depending upon how quickly the transaction occurs, Manuel has said.
Prior to voting on the resolution, board members heard from Mark Chroscielewski of South Jamesport and Thomas Glennon of Brooklyn, two people who said they have helped restore New York City music venues and are interested in working with Castronovo on the Vail-Leavitt.
Chroscielewski said he did a walk-through of the Vail-Leavitt, which needs “a lot of renovation” and “needs the programming that will bring people in and make it the crown jewel that everybody feels it can be.”
Glennon, a former project manager for the music production company Live Nation, said he would visit the Vail-Leavitt on Wednesday and make his own assessment of the property “and then put together our own feasibility budget and plan for it.”
Those comments prompted Rothwell to speak about the town’s intent to sell the property to The Jazz Loft. He said the board wanted to get public opinion about both presentations “and since Thursday…we haven’t done that.”
“And so I feel like we’re kind of neglecting [that by] moving forward with the sale of a building, and I really would like to have a public hearing. I really would like the people to come out to [see] what everybody’s looking for,” Rothwell said.
“The ultimate goal here, of course, is to restore the theater and to make it a great venue,” Rothwell said. “But it also needs to be a venue that’s going to put people in the seats of all the restaurants. [Bring] people that are going to come out here and spend perhaps a weekend or a couple days — an overnight stay — and invest in our hotel rooms, our restaurants and our stores.”
Rothwell said he wants diverse events, such as blues, country music and Latino music festivals — not just jazz.
By choosing The Jazz Loft, the town is “not taking disposable income into account,” Kern said. He doubted the theater could be restored with just grant funding.
Kern and Rothwell also said the town’s offer to sell the Vail-Leavitt was not publicized. Hubbard said town officials “reached out through our channels” and found The Jazz Loft. Kern said he learned of Castronovo’s interest in the property through a “serendipitous text.”
“We’ve got somebody that is more than perfect for this scenario. If we didn’t, I would agree with you wholeheartedly,” Hubbard said. “In my mind, it is a proven entity, and it’s something that a lot of people seem to want. From a lot of people that I’ve talked to and heard from, a lot of people support The Jazz Loft. I did not get one call in support of the other gentleman.”
Kern suggested the town put out a request for proposals [RFP] to get more interested purchasers. An RFP would also allow the town to know “the true value” of the building, Rothwell added. Hubbard said last week that The Jazz Loft offered the town $150,000 to purchase the building, while Castronovo offered $205,000. Before voting, Rothwell called The Jazz Loft’s offer “not adequate.”
Rothwell and Kern’s comments received pushback from other board members.
“An RFP would put this out for another year, Bob, and 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,” Hubbard said. “We’ve been doing this for over a year.” People should have “stepped up,” if they were interested, he added.
Merrifield said Kathryn Curran of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation — one of Long Island’s top grant contributors for historic preservation projects — brought The Jazz Loft to the town. The foundation’s support of The Jazz Loft shows its ability to fund the Vail-Leavitt’s renovations.
“They are a well run, highly professional, organized, acclaimed musical group that has been in existence for nine years, running straight,” Merrifield said. “This is not a hope and a prayer…”
The Jazz Loft makes tickets affordable and “accessible to everyone in the town,” Merrifield said. “It isn’t a $500 performance for some artists,” she said, referencing Castronovo’s comments last week about pricing performances at the Vail-Leavitt.
“Jazz encompasses a great deal. It’s Broadway. It’s show tunes. It’s swing,” Merrifield said. “He doesn’t just do that. He also has choral groups. He has community groups. He has said he would open this facility up to all different community groups in town to help support the local arts in our town.”
Manuel is “not somebody who just knows people in the biz. He is the business,” Merrifield said, after listing his credentials.
Waski said The Jazz Loft is an “entity that has proven itself in the past. They’ve proven that they’re able to secure grants and move things forward. They’ve been successful.”
Waski enjoys jazz, she said, and “If I’m driving in my car and Ella Fitzgerald comes on, I know I am going to be singing along [to] ‘At Last. And the way that I see this is: at last, we have somebody fully committed, vetted [and] able to go into the Vail-Leavitt that wants to see it come back alive again.”
Hubbard said the resolution passed by the board does not prevent the town from considering other proposals.
“So if somebody else wants to put a proposal together, they put the proposal together,” he said. “I wouldn’t wait too long, because it’s only been 16 months already that we’ve been working on this; and I’m not looking to go another 16 months.”
The Jazz Loft has been in talks with the town for about year, officials said. RiverheadLOCAL first reported last August that the town was in talks to lease the theater to the organization.
The town only last year regained possession of the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, which it bought in 1980. In 1982, the town gave the theater to a nonprofit group, the Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, formed to operate the theater as a performing arts venue. The town saw the group as a failure. The council’s board quit and surrendered the organization and the Vail-Leavitt to the town shortly after the town sued to try to take the building back using a “reverter clause” in the deed.
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