Interim Mayor Raymond Giacobbe, Jr., will deliver his first State of the City address on Thursday, nine weeks after being appointed to fill the vacant seat.

The State of the City is scheduled to take place March 15 at 7 p.m. in Hamilton Stage for the Arts, 360 Hamilton St. Performances and entertainment are planned along with a reception with light refreshments to follow. Limited tickets are free but already sold out at the 199-seat theater.

Historically, the State of the City simply was delivered by the mayor during City Council’s annual reorganization meeting — the first regular meeting of the year in January. Former Mayor Samson Steinman in 2014 began making the State of the City an event, presented either at Hamilton Stage or Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) and preceded by various performances and presentations.

The State of the City usually is an opportunity for the mayor to either announce some new changes or boast about a new initiative. Among the topics touched on last year, amid some updates on a few redevelopment projects, were the coming arrival of a new hotel to fill the long-vacant space downtown, a pop-up youth center on East Cherry Street, and new management of the Arts Guild.

Two years ago, it was a push to petition Trade Joe’s to site a store in Rahway, a reorganization of City Hall departments, and a city app that never quite materialized. In 2014, the mayor announced upgrades to Rahway River Park, which were opposed by some folks, and also mentioned a city app as well as an arts festival. , which never seemed to materialize.

Giacobbe gave up his 6th Ward seat to serve the remaining year of Steinman’s original four-year term and is expected to run in the June primary for the mayor seat, along with three City Council At-large candidates. The filing deadline for the June primary is April 2.