The Jazz Loft presents its case for purchasing Riverhead’s historic Vail-Leavitt Music Hall

The Town Board held a “qualified and eligible sponsor” hearing Thursday on the application of The Jazz Loft, a Stony Brook-based nonprofit organization, which seeks to purchase the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall from the Town of Riverhead. 

The town has negotiated a proposed contract with The Jazz Loft Inc. to sell the historic theater to the organization for $150,000. The contract requires The Jazz Loft to renovate and operate the theater, to be used only for educational, recreational or cultural purposes, maintaining its “historical character,” according to the resolution scheduling the public hearing.  

The proposed contract of sale requires the Town Board to determine the purchaser “qualified and eligible” under the N.Y. State Urban Renewal Law, which allows a municipality to sell property in an urban renewal zone without a competitive bidding process. The municipality must determine that the purchaser has the resources to purchase the property and use it consistent with the goals of an adopted urban renewal plan, including redevelopment of the property, if needed. The theater is located in Riverhead’s East Main Street urban renewal area. 

Thomas Manuel, founder, curator and artistic director of The Jazz Loft led the organization’s presentation to the Town Board at Thursday afternoon’s hearing. 

Manuel said The Jazz Loft has been working on the “acquisition, renewal and revitalization of the Vail Levitt theater” for more than two years. During that time, the organization has done a lot of research and developed “a solid and successful plan that will mean great things for our community at large, and place the Vail-Leavitt theater once again as one of the crown jewels of Riverhead.”

A jazz historian, music educator and trumpet player on the faculty at Stonhy Brook University, Manuel spoke with affection of the Vail-Leavitt’s storied history.

“Built in 1881, it’s the oldest theater on Long Island, as well as the oldest performance venue in downstate New York. It’s listed on the National Historic Register and is a solid two decades older than Broadway’s first two theaters,” Manuel said. “The main theater and its balcony are a scale replica of the Ford Theater Opera House that was designed by JW Flack, and miraculously, this theater has survived unscathed for over 144 years. Despite changes on its main floor, the important theater upstairs has proven to be a survivor,” he told the board. 

“The Vail-Leavitt has survived hurricanes, floods and fire. It survived being used as a Chinese food restaurant, a roller rink, a cold storage facility, and decades of minimal and idle use, it has survived many owners, countless town boards, and I have a feeling it will outlive all of us too,” he said. 

“So the reason why we are here today is because, collectively and collaboratively, we have the opportunity to be the next stewards of this very special, important theater. We have the chance to embrace its history and to ensure that its future is more active, more vibrant, more inspiring and more meaningful in our community than it’s ever been before,” Manuel said. 

The applicant provided the town with copies of its financials, as well as a copy of its most recent federal tax return.

Chris Paradysz, a Jazz Loft board member who is on its finance committee spoke to the financial capabilities of the organization. He said The Jazz Loft has operating cash flows to support the acquisition and to begin needed renovations.  

“We have a 10-year success story of year over year growth, both financially, from a revenue point of view and from a profit point of view. The last five years, we’ve continued to grow on that. And in fact, ticket revenues have exceeded $3 million in the last five years,” Paradysz said. People in the Riverhead community have already stepped up to very generously pledge financial support, he said. “The Jazz Loft today has $256,000 in cash and $850,000 in equity,” he said. 

Brian Stark of Jamesport spoke in support of the applicant. “It’s going to be a destination,” he said. “So if they have the financial ability, which they clearly do, the product is something that I believe people will come to Riverhead for, because it’s a great organization,” Stark said, pointing to how the organization works with schools, too. “I wholeheartedly support The Jazz Loft’s endeavor downtown,” he said.

Alan Fishbein of Riverhead said he loves jazz and spoke of how much he has enjoyed The Jazz Loft’s Southampton series this year. “They’ve done a great job down in Southampton … and the stuff is well attended. And in fact, I’ve seen people from the North Fork there,” Fishbein said. “I’d really be happy to support it once it’s up and going, which is what I told him I do.”

Manuel spoke about the parallels between The Jazz Loft’s Stony Brook building and the Vail-Leavitt. It comprises multiple structures, one structure  is one of the oldest buildings in Stony Brook, dating back to 1770. It was put together with a building that dates to 1920 and “completely reimagined” when Stony Brook Village was built in 1941. “And so to speak, to our ability to take on a project like this, we oversaw a half million dollar renovation project. We got our building permits on May 21, 2015. We had our grand opening one year later, May 21, 2016…We oversaw everything from the roof to cesspool to electric to HVAC to restoration to — you name it. He showed before and after photos of the site. He also showed the board a couple of videos. 

 A Jazz Loft board member in charge of the organization’s educational outreach, Laura Landor a 29-year music educator.The organization offers workshops for music educators that offer CTLE credits. It offers performance opportunities for school groups from across Long Island. They do master classes, they perform, Landor said. Students get real joy out of performing in a professional venue. Their parents enjoy watching it in that setting too, she said.

“We provide tickets and opportunities for students and educators to hear performances, to come join in some of those performances, and jam sessions,” Landor said. “We have students in middle school who come sit in and learn how to jam, learn from some of these other musicians and get over the fear of playing without sheet music, learning to improvise. That’s how so many of these students have learned how to elevate their musicianship. The jams are offered weekly.

“There’s nothing like watching a jam session with a 12 year old, a 20 year old, a 50 year old and an 80 year old all playing some C Jam Blues. It’s exactly what jazz is meant to be,” Landor said. “And we’ve also been able to offer community service and some employment for many of these students,” she said.

Jazz Loft board member Judy Greiman, who is recently retired from her position as chief deputy to the president of Stony Brook University, spoke of her role in overseeing community and government relations for the university. 

“When I first got there, there were less than successful relationships in our community, and we really worked hard to develop much stronger relationships,” Greiman said. “And one of them was with Tom and …the Loft. And they really are key community partners for developing, for joint programming, for performances, and frankly, we use the Loft to help hire and retain employees,” she said. 

“People see it as something that is exciting and interesting about what can be a sleepy community, and it has a life and a vision around it that I think made people excited and helped them to say, this is where I want to live. And I see the same thing happening in Riverhead, Greiman said.

Manuel submitted to the Town Board a restoration plan prepared by Joel Snodgrass, who Manuel sad is “without question, the authority for restoration of historic buildings in New York State.” He works with the Gardiner Foundation, which provided The Jazz Loft with a grant for renovation of the 1770 portion of the organization’s Stony Brook venue.  “He was incredibly gracious in providing a meticulous report on exactly what would be needed to restore the Vail-Levitt theater,” Manuel said.  “He has prepared that report in two phases. The first phase is what is considered rather — I won’t use the word dire, but of time is of the essence — quite necessary to make sure that it is structurally sound. Phase two is more aesthetic, and more of the things that are not necessarily needed for the venue to be open and operational, but certainly for it to be much more pleasing to the eye. That is the report that we are basing the restoration on,” Manuel said.

“It’s is an absolutely exhaustive and thorough report, and I’m really grateful to Joel for for putting that together,” he said.

The proposed schedule for opening The Jazz Loft calls for a soft opening in January, followed by about six months of renovations and a grand opening in July.

“We don’t want to actually touch or do anything with the original theater,” Manuel said. “To our knowledge… it’s up to code. So we don’t really see a need to change that. And like I said, Our desire is to absolutely keep that theater that has survived all these years intact. We don’t want to change anything,” he said. 

“The main work is really the roof and the exterior. The building is not watertight. There’s leakage. There’s a problem with the roof, but that is all stuff that will be done outside,” Manuel said.

Bryan DeLuca, executive director of the company that owns the Long Island Aquarium, the Hyatt Place Hotel and the future hotel on the town square, said that he is on the board of Discover Long Island. In that capacity, DeLuca had the opportunity to tour The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, he said. “And I was blown away by what they’ve accomplished, the history they’re preserving, the performances they do, and it’s really, really well done,” DeLuca said. 

“Anytime that we can get a point of interest, an attraction or something for the East End is just another feather in our cap and another thing for us to market and take advantage of,” said DeLuca, who is also president of the East End Tourism Alliance. “And having multiple hotels on Main Street, having performers that would come, guests stay overnight and get to enjoy our downtown, the East End, the North Fork and the vineyards, it’s just another great thing for Riverhead,” DeLuca said. “I think it’s another great point of interest for Riverhead, and I think it’s something that should be well supported by this board,” he said.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard closed the hearing but left the record open for written comment until close of business on Friday, Oct. 24.