If you have never heard of the State Theater in Cambridge, you will, as local developer Brett Summers has the long vacant Tolley Theater under contract and headed for a historic renovation.
The Tolley in the 500 block of Race Street started out as the State Theater in the 1920s and later operated as the Dorset and finally as the Tolley Dinner Theater up until the 1990s. Summers tells Radio Chesapeake's Mike Starling of the plans for renovation.
Mike Starling:
Mike Sterling's in studio B with Brett Summers. And Brett, you're not here to talk about politics today as our Ward 1 commissioner. You're here to talk about something that's maybe even more exciting, which is?
Brett Summers:
Talking about the State Performing Arts Center, the former Tolley Theater at 515 Race Street. We are organizing a group of interested citizens to acquire the property and renovate it into a performing arts center.
Mike Starling:
How long have you been thinking about this?
Brett Summers:
I've been working on it for about a year and a half with Ms. Tolley and attorneys getting the contract negotiated and agreeing to terms. She was excited about the idea that this theater would be renovated and be put to good community use. So she got behind the idea early on. We just had to work out the details.
Mike Starling:
You've obviously had quite a presence here in Cambridge for a long time. How many buildings have you renovated and are now commercially going concerns in downtown Cambridge and the arts and entertainment district?
Brett Summers:
Over the past 20 years, we've renovated five buildings, created 32 apartment units downtown Cambridge, and seven retail spaces. In those retail spaces, we have some excellent restaurants. We have Ava's, Dive Club, and Blackwater Bakery.
Mike Starling:
Blackwater Bakery. I've heard of that. Matter of fact, my coffee right here came from Blackwater Bakery this morning.
Brett Summers:
You drink good coffee, Mike. Drink good coffee.
Mike Starling:
Which is run by your wife, Jamie. We got to give her credit for the great job she does.
Brett Summers:
Absolutely. She works hard. But then we're also working on 444 and 448 Race Street, and that's under construction currently.
Mike Starling:
And that's where there was, was it G. Willikers and Short Bid Auctions when there was the big fire downtown?
Brett Summers:
The great fire of 2008. So it's taken us a while. Historic preservation is not always fast, but I do think it's important to preserve the architectural heritage of our community. This was a J. Benjamin Brown building. He was a noted architect from Cambridge. Beautiful building. And I'm just glad we're able to save it and we're going to convert it into nine apartments and three retail spaces. Awesome.
Mike Starling:
And
Brett Summers:
That'll deliver probably early 2028.
Mike Starling:
Well, that's not too far down the pike, but let's back up here. So it's been known as the Tolley for a while, but it hasn't been used as a movie theater in what, decades? How long has it been?
Brett Summers:
I've been here since 2000 and it has not been operating to my knowledge. I'm not sure when it shut down. Jean and Shirley Tolley, they ran it. They're family.
Mike Starling:
What was it called before that? Did it have an interim name after? It started as the state theater. And do you know what year it opened up?
Brett Summers:
Opened up in the 1920s.
Mike Starling:
In the 20s.
Brett Summers:
I want to say 1926. I have to double check that, but 1920s as the state theater. I think at one point in time it may have been the Dorset.
Mike Starling:
I'd seen that name referenced as well.
Brett Summers:
There's always some confusion between this theater and the arcade.
Mike Starling:
Which was across the street.
Brett Summers:
Caddy-corner on the corner of Bureau and Race, and that's now apartments. But it's clear that the State Theater was the original name of this location. And we kind of want to reclaim that name because that was kind of the glory years of cinema and theater, the 1920s, 1930s. And that's where we're really trying to take this building back to is a glory state.
Mike Starling:
So do you have any of the original architectural drawings and such for the building that you can refer back to?
Brett Summers:
Not to my knowledge.
Mike Starling:
Okay.
Brett Summers:
We're going to start from a clean slate. My plan, once we acquire it, we're going to put a roof on it because we got to stop the rain from coming in and make it weather tight. Then we would be focused on architectural engineering drawings. And the idea is to find an architect who has experience in restoring theaters back to their prime. We want to hire one of those firms that has that kind of experience. We don't want to reinvent the wheel with what we're doing here, but we want to have outstanding acoustics and comfortable chairs and the proper stage and everything that's needed to have a world-class performing arts center.
Mike Starling:
It's really an exciting thing. When I saw it pop up in Facebook, it's like all my friends were calling each other saying, "Did you see this? This is really cool."
Brett Summers:
That's the kind of the excitement we need. I think it's a project that everyone can get behind to benefit the entire community. It's good to be part of a project or an issue that's not controversial. Certainly as a ward one commissioner, we have enough controversial issues here in the city of Cambridge.
Mike Starling:
A few. Well, this would actually belong in ward three, is that right?
Brett Summers:
Correct. Yes. Trying to help out my good friend, Commissioner (Frank) Stout.
Mike Starling:
We're talking with Brett Summers of the State Performing Arts Center in Cambridge. And of course, with any project of this magnitude, it's time, quality, and money. I know it's too early to say what's the budget that that's all got to be built, but you've got enough experience with renovating commercial properties in your background. You've got a pretty good hunch on how big is this bread box.
Brett Summers:
Well, I've never done a theater.
Mike Starling:
Okay. Fair enough.
Brett Summers:
I've done retail. I've done apartments. So this will be new. It's probably somewhere in three million, maybe a little bit more. Everything always costs more than you think. It's one thing we're doing the building, then you got the FF&E, furniture, fixtures and equipment. And here we're going to have chairs and audio equipment and theater equipment stage.
Mike Starling:
And stage and lighting and all of that.
Brett Summers:
Those things are somewhat unique. I think it's somewhere in that three million plus range. And we're going to look for community donations as a nonprofit for state support.
Mike Starling:
What's the name of your nonprofit?
Brett Summers:
Basically just going to call it the State Performing Arts Center Corporation. Right now we're getting support from the MidShore Community Foundation to be our 501 umbrella.
Mike Starling:
Yeah, your fiscal agent. They provide that service and they've done it for many noteworthy causes all around the Midshore.
Brett Summers:
Exactly. We want to be able to take donations right away so we can... The contract requires us to close in December. Anticipating raising $100,000 for this endeavor will not be difficult. Then we'll have more time after we acquire it to raise money. I figure a couple hundred thousand more for the roof replacement.
Mike Starling:
Get the roof taken care of before it really compromises anything structurally, right?
Brett Summers:
Correct. Right now there's a bunch of baby pools in there collecting water.
Mike Starling:
Really?
Brett Summers:
Yes.
Mike Starling:
Okay. So this is really sort of a one shot. You got to get it done now because in a few years, would it be demolition by neglect? It might be too far gone to resurrect it?
Brett Summers:
There's always that risk. I think that was part of Ms. Tolley's concern. She didn't want to invest the money and put it on a new roof. She wanted the next owner to do it. I understand that.
Mike Starling:
Is this sort of what's been part of the problem and the story for the Hearn building in that same block was it was so far gone that it's so expensive that to put all that together to resurrect it has just been a superhuman feat and it hasn't happened yet despite what, a decade plus of people working on it?
Brett Summers:
A Decade plus.
Mike Starling:
To deviate real quick to the Hearn building, if the city could have stepped in back then and patched the roof. Stabilized it.
Brett Summers:
$20,000 roof repair and then put a lien on the property owner, it would've saved that property. That roof got torn off in a storm or something and the elements came in for the next 10 years plus and ruined the whole building. Really, really, that's a classic example of demolition by neglect.
Mike Starling:
So they really need something akin to a fund for targets of opportunity that the case could be made. This is going to be such an important resource for the community as a whole. We need to step in and salvage whether it's some structure or something getting sold off that's going to be not helpful to the community as a whole. They don't really have that kind of flexibility in the budgeting, do they?
Brett Summers:
The city?
Mike Starling:
Yeah, the city.
Brett Summers:
No, I think the city does.
Mike Starling:
They could have made that case.
Brett Summers:
Yeah. I'm not sure anyone made the case. I don't know what powers to be back then, but the city has the ability to step in and prevent demolition by neglect. And I think it has the finances to do that for a reasonable repair. I mean, the Hearn building, $20,000 roof repair could have prevented millions of dollars of damage. I mean, the whole floor system, roof system, everything collapsed or deteriorated.
Mike Starling:
Well, it's good that you're showing up just in the right time frame here to save what was originally the state theater.
Brett Summers:
The theater is not in that bad a condition. It has leaks, so it's not like a wide open hole in the roof, but we certainly want to replace the roof, start off with a fresh new roof and really protect the additional investment we're going to put in later.
Mike Starling:
Well, I know speaking for Radio Chesapeake here, anytime you want to come back and speak to the community about the state that you're in now, what's your hunch on how many years it'll take to work through this process? You've got some experience. You've probably got a pretty decent hunch.
Brett Summers:
I'm going to drive the process. And with my development background, time is the enemy. So once we get started here, I want to keep this thing moving forward and I would hope in three to five years we could have this thing up and running, if not sooner. I mean, from a pure construction standpoint, if we had all the money right now, we could probably get it done in two years, four to six months on architectural engineering drawings and then a year and a half on construction. But we're going to need time to raise money and this is a nonprofit endeavor. It's not a for-profit. We have more people to consider, et cetera.
Mike Starling:
Well, it sounds awesome. It sounds exciting. How do people get in touch with you that would say, "I'm really excited about this and how can I help?"
Brett Summers:
We do have a website. I have to give a shout out to Christina Wingate-Spence with Cambridge Main Street.
Mike Starling:
Good.
Brett Summers:
She's helping with all the social media and establishing our website. And so I think (the email address is) info@stateperformingartscenter.org. We'll get more information out on that. We are having a meeting this next Tuesday, November 10th at six o'clock at Blackwater Bakery at 429 Ray Street.
Mike Starling:
Hope you're able to negotiate a favorable rental for that space.
Brett Summers:
A venue, a rental. Buy coffee if you come, or pastries. But it's a big enough space and we're going to have a meeting to just get the word out more, hopefully get some pledges from people.
Mike Starling:
Good.
Brett Summers:
Very optimistic we're going to raise the money and get this thing acquired.
Mike Starling:
So once you've got more to tell us, we'll have you back for the current status.
Brett Summers:
Fantastic. I appreciate it, Mike.
Mike Starling:
All right. Thanks for coming in, Brett.