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Owner wants to revive live music where the IMAC once thrived
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Six months after the IMAC shuttered its doors, there has been considerable interest from at least one group of buyers to lease the building as a performing arts center.
"As far as we understand, Frank Viteritti is very close to doing something with a group performing arts type operator," the town's Performing Arts Task Force co-chair David Pennetta said, referring to the owner of the building at 370 New York Ave. "More than that I don't really know."
Viteritti said he had met with Supervisor Frank Petrone a while ago and informed him of his desire to put in another theater in the building.
"And I told them if you know anybody with interest, I'm happy to talk with them," Viteritti said.
Brian Phelps, the realtor representing Viteritti, said they are entertaining several qualified parties who are interested in operating the former IMAC site as a for-profit fine arts venue.
IMAC operated as a non-profit institution for 36 years, the last 26 located at the New York Avenue venue. "We actually have a draft lease being prepared right now on behalf of one of the entities," Phelps said, but declined to divulge more information. "Anybody who goes in there has met with the town and the Performing Arts Task Force. We have an agreement with the town itself that it will be live, fine arts performances."
Because the building is privately owned, the town doesn't control its destiny, town spokesman A.J. Carter said, though officials hope a new tenant will create a live music center. "We are encouraged that the owner is talking to a tenant who will want to keep this as a performing art center," he said.
Diana Cherryholmes, executive director of the Huntington Arts Council and a task force member, also struck an optimistic note.
"I am hopeful that whoever that potential operator is for that venue continues some of the programming like IMAC did," Cherryholmes said
IMAC's programming had a proven track record, Cherryholmes said. "Their shows were selling well," she said.
As for the new owners, Cherryholmes said she hopes they become community partners and rent the space to local groups. "And I look forward to learning more about what their scope of activities are planned," she said.
IMAC co-founder Michael Rothbard, who died last month, reported to this paper that a 60-pound piece of plaster falling down back stage was one reason he and his partner, Kathie Bodily, decided to close the performance center.
But Phelps refuted any notion of the building being in poor condition. "When the property first became vacant there was a lot of confusion about the condition of the theater, with rumors about the seats being ripped out and the stage being gone," Phelps said. "All that is inaccurate and not true."
The roof was put on three or four years ago, Phelps said, and the falling plaster was due to a poor spackling job.
The building seems to be in fine shape, overall, Phelps indicated. "The bones are good, real good," he said.
Though he couldn't predict exactly when a new center would open, Pennetta conjectured that with less than six weeks left in the year, it wouldn't be until sometime in 2010.
Phelps opined that the future is bright for performing arts in Huntington.
"It's going to be a new day for the IMAC because there will be funds available, because it won't be a not-for-profit anymore," he said.
Two longtime members of IMAC spoke of their hopes for maintaining the building as a performance space.
"We definitely would like to see the building continue to be used for a musical venue and maybe also incorporat[e] Michael's ideas to use it as an arts center in general," said Barbara Yanuck of Huntington. She and her husband, Scott, worked as IMAC ushers in the early 1980s. "Maybe IMAC can still be viable if it works as a partnership, perhaps, with the Huntington Arts Council. That would be fantastic for Huntington."
Calling IMAC a vital part of his musical life and the diversity and cultural life of Huntington, Ron Kohn of Woodbury, said, "The incredible convenience of such outstanding music in our backyard made this theater even more of a treasure. I welcome the news of a potential IMAC comeback."
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