Riverhead Town on Tuesday inked a contract of sale with The Jazz Loft, agreeing to sell the historic Vail-Leavitt Music Hall on Peconic Avenue to the Stony Brook-based nonprofit for $150,000.
Town officials, Jazz Loft board members, donors and invited guests gathered in the second-floor performance space for a contract signing ceremony, as a jazz trio performed onstage.
“This is phenomenal,” Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said before signing the contract. “We brought the right people in.”
Hubbard thanked the organization’s benefactors “for making today happen.”
“You believe in Riverhead like I believe in Riverhead, like so many of us here believe in this town,” Hubbard said.
“This is truly an amazing day for our town, and Denise Merrifield worked very hard at making this happen, and we’re here today because of that,” Hubbard said, turning to the council member and asking that she “say a few words.”
Merrifield obliged, speaking directly to the Jazz Loft’s founder and president, Thomas Manuel, a music professor at Stony Brook University.
“Professor, thank you very much for bringing your fantastic musical group to this town. I’ve been a wonderful fan since COVID, when I first saw you performing out on the lawn in front of the library. I loved it” Merrifield said.
“It’s going to be a tremendous point of interest for everyone to come into our town … come to our beautiful scenic walk by the water, come to the restaurants, come to the bars, and help the revitalization of this town. And as the supervisor had said, it’s the right time with everything happening with the town square, it’s going to fit — perfectly aligned together,” Merrifield said.
Manuel thanked everyone in attendance. “You believe so much in this special place that’s been here since 1881, the oldest theater in downstate New York, older than any theater on Broadway,” he said.
“We’re so excited to see what’s going to happen on this stage,” Manuel said. “What we’re going to be able to do musically in the world of performance, what we’re going to be able to do with education for our students, from youngsters up to college kids, what we’re able going to be able to do celebrating the history of this building, the history of our community, is really outstanding,” he said. “And we’re really excited to get going in 2026.”
Members of the Riverhead Rotary Club presented The Jazz Loft with an oversized check representing a $25,000 donation to assist with the effort.
In an interview after the ceremony, Manuel said the organization plans to begin necessary renovations as soon as it takes title to the property and has permits in hand. The renovations include fixing the roof so that it no longer leaks and repairing infrastructure, including the HVAC system.
“We’d really love to be able to, during that process, have some events where the community could come in and see the space again and see the work we’re doing and learn how to get involved,” Manuel said. “We’re shooting for some actual programming in the summer,” he said.
The supervisor could barely contain his excitement. He told the crowd he felt like dancing, adding “and you don’t want to see that.”
“It’s all about the excitement for the town of Riverhead,” Hubbard said after the ceremony. “And go back last week to the groundbreaking, and now this. I couldn’t be going out on a higher note, to be honest with you. I wanted to see both of these come to fruition,” he said.
“This building is absolutely amazing. I remember being a beat cop walking the street, and we’d pop in here once in a while and just look at the architecture and the woodwork,” Hubbard recalled. “How did they do it?” he marveled, looking up at the craftsmanship of the balcony’s woodwork. “Back in the day, it was manual labor. Cutting and sawing and doing everything by hand. Today, they could run stuff through a mill, and, you know, have it done in no time. But this stuff— it all withstood the test of time,” he said.
“To have an entity like The Jazz Loft come in here… you know, the trouble we’ve had in this place over the years, people taking it over — and promises, promises, and they were going to do this and do that…” he said.
He expressed confidence that this time would be different.
The Jazz Loft previously restored a historic building in Stony Brook built in the 1770s and turned it into a performance venue and music museum. In addition to operating the performance space and museum, The Jazz Loft also offers educational programs, including one in collaboration with Stony Brook University.
Riverhead Town purchased the Vail-Leavitt in 1980 with federal grant funding. The opera house, then a century old, had not been operated as a theater for many years — having had stints that included a roller rink, a gambling parlor and a Chinese restaurant, according to a 1981 Newsday article. It was described as “a shambles” by a local businessman who was a founder of the Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, Harold Smith.
Riverhead’s journey to The Jazz Loft sale
The town conveyed the building to the nonprofit Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in March 1982, according to town records. The deed had a provision known as a “reverter clause,” which allowed the town to recover the property if it was not used for the purposes for which it was conveyed, or if the historical character of the property was not properly maintained.”
The town sued the Council for the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in August 2023, seeking to recover ownership of the property under the deed’s reverter clause. The town argued that the Council for the Vail-Leavitt had not fulfilled its obligations to maintain, manage and operate the property as required by the 1982 deed. According to town officials, the council did not properly maintain the property, which had become dilapidated and is in dire need of urgent, and expensive, repairs.
The Council for the Vail-Leavitt decided not to contest the town’s lawsuit. Its board resigned and turned over possession of the site to the town. The Town Board took over the nonprofit entity and in May 2024 obtained a court order returning title to the Town of Riverhead. The town in August 2024 obtained a court order granting its petition to dissolve the Council for the Vail Leavitt Music Hall.
After finding The Jazz Loft to be a “qualified and eligible sponsor” under the Urban Renewal Law, the Town Board in November authorized the contract that was signed Tuesday.
RiverheadLOCAL/Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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