Work is coming along on the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts with walls recently going up to cover most of the steel. The $5.825-million project is slated to be complete by next spring.
The future Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts (a.k.a., the former Bell Building) has been taking shape, with the steel structure extending further toward the sidewalk in recent weeks. The 220-seat black box theater and performing arts space is scheduled to open next summer (here’s a floor plan).
For a peek at what it looked like when work first started this spring, check out this previous post.
The deadline for requests for proposals (RFPs) to become an artistic affiliate of the Hamilton Stage has been pushed back eight weeks, to Oct. 12.
RFPs were posted (.pdf) on the Arts District website this summer, and originally were to be received by Aug. 17. About 20 companies had expressed interest by June.
The Rahway Arts District is sponsoring an “I ‘Art Rahway” giveaway. Tell them why you ‘Art Rahway (follow the link), and you’ll be entered to win a T-shirt signed by musician Nicole Adkins, who performed here this summer. Winners will be announced at the Oct. 6 First Thursday.
It’s long overdue for some details about the city’s bond sale this past spring that I promised last month when I posted the city’s top 10 property taxpayers.
The city borrowed almost $12 million in general improvement bonds, including almost $8 million for redevelopment- and arts-related items.
Ten of the 22 items in the $11.765 million bond sale were related to redevelopment, totaling $7.78 million for redevelopment, more than half of it related to the Hamilton Street arts projects. About $783,750 was authorized in 2007, which covered architectural concept plans, planning and engineering, surveying, DEP permitting, floor plans and elevations, and demolition of the Hamilton Laundry building. Another $4.5 million was authorized last year, but only $3 million borrowed so far, for the Arts District’s amphitheater, which would cover the renovation of the Bell Building (now referred to as the Hamilton Stage), construction of the amphitheater, acquisition of arts related equipment and eventual acquisition of the Elizabethtown Gas building (Block 167, Lot 1).
A breakdown of the 10 items, some dating back to 2000, can be found in this Excel file, including the amounts authorized and bonds issued, along with a brief description. At the April bond sale, the city secured a rate just below 4.51 percent over 20 years from J.P. Morgan (UBS Financial was the other bidder, coming in at under 4.59 percent). The bonds mature annually on April, beginning in 2012 at $350,000, increasing to $450,000 in 2015, $550,000 in 2016, $560,000 in 2017 and $640,000 in 2018, before leveling out at $700,000 annually through 2030. The complete maturity schedule can be found in this Excel file.
In tomorrow’s post, we’ll take a look at what Standard & Poor’s had to say in its report on the city.
NJ Monthly magazine’s Table Hopping with Rosie paid a visit to Patria Restaurant and Mixology Lounge. She called it “a place in NJ that should be on your must-try list.” Overall, she had quite a few good things to say, calling the garlic shrimp better than anything found in Newark, and advising not to miss some entrees (including Patria pork, and I must agree) as well as dessert.
More than 20 performing arts companies have expressed an interest in making Hamilton Stage their home.
A combination art gallery and tattoo parlor gained approval from the Redevelopment Agency. Times Of Grace would be located at 1417 Main St., previously occupied on occasion by a Jackson Hewitt Tax Service office.
Robert Mankowski and his wife, Hayley, made a presentation to commissioners at the agency’s monthly meeting this week. Both are graduates of the University of The Arts in Philadelphia and have had their work shown around the nation.
Director of Community Development and Redevelopment Agency Secretary Cindy Solomon told commissioners that a resolution would be necessary not for the art gallery but the tattoo parlor planned to go with it. A tattoo parlor is not a permitted use in the business district so a resolution was required by the Redevelopment Agency, similar to when Rose City Tattoos moved in on West Main Street.
The fine arts gallery would be visible from the street but the tattoo parlor would be in the rear of the space and by appointment only, said Mankowski, who would be the lone tattoo artist. He aims to avoid a stereotypical tattoo parlor that people might think of when they think of tattoos (“No neon signs”), but instead draw people inside through the artwork on display.
A couple of commissioners preferred that the art gallery be more prominent than the tattoo parlor in any signage, and that the resolution also specific the limited number of tattoo artists and the fact that it would be by appointment only.
Mankowski, who first hand-draws each custom tattoo, hopes to open the gallery/tattoo parlor later this summer.
Construction began last month to turn the Bell Building on Hamilton Street into a black box theater, a little at a time (photo left), until last week when several of walls were knocked out (photo below).
How about some light weekend reading about planning and development, a slideshow of “How to Spot the Next Hot ‘Hood,” from MSN Real Estate. In addition to antiquing and building sports stadiums, the 12 points in the list include attracting artists and creative types, something Rahway has been trying to do. Some of the items more relevant to Rahway:
— “Hang with the Gen Y hipsters”: Portland, Ore.’s Pearl District was redeveloped from a rundown warehouse district in the ’90s to “just the sort of place that could be attractive to Gen Y,” featuring hip lofts, brew pubs, bookstores and art galleries, as well as office space for employers. They make the point that Gen Y seeks urban-type neighborhoods that are walkable, with amenities like shopping, recreation and entertainment within walking distance.
— “Follow the artists”: Few artists are rich, which means most of them set up shop in parts of town with cheap rent. But once artists move in…galleries and studios often attract restaurants and shops, turning the “downtrodden zones into culturally rich neighborhoods that often become unaffordable to artists themselves.”
The story cites SoHo in New York and SoMa in San Francisco as two big-city neighborhoods that the underpaid creative set transformed. “Now the streets of SoHo in Lower Manhattan are strewn with upscale galleries and restaurants, and the artists have long decamped for less stylish venues. With its spacious lofts, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, became an attractive location for artists in the past decade. But Williamsburg also has priced itself out of reach. Greenpoint, just to its north, now has embraced many of the artistic émigrés.”
— “Fly Creative: The buzz at the height of the housing bubble was that Seattle-area artists were on the cusp of turning the suburb of Burien, Wash., into the next SoHo. The community of 45,332 sits just south of Seattle and has long been home to legions of workers at Boeing, the aerospace giant. A vibrant arts scene — the city hosts a symphony plus numerous theaters and art galleries — was pulling in the creative set, as well.”
An 1,800-seat theater falls into disrepair during ’70s, makes come back with the help of local supporters and government funding. It’s not the Union County Performing Arts Center but the St. George Theatre in Staten Island. In this case, along with $4 million in borough funds to revitalize the theater, a longtime Staten Island resident established a nonprofit to save the edifice and donated her life savings — nearly $1 million — to launch the effort.
From Crain’s New York Business: A star is reborn near waterfront in Staten Island: St. George Theatre helps to revitalize down-at-the-heels area.
Renovations to the former Bell Telephone building on Hamilton Street got under way this week. The goal is to transform the vacant structure into a 200-seat black box theater by this time next year, along with parking on adjacent sites that had been planned as an amphitheater.
With costs rising and taxpayers facing those expenses, as well as a $34-million school bond project approved in September 2009, the Redevelopment Agency decided to move ahead with the black box theater while putting the amphitheater on hold for the time being in favor of parking. The thinking was that a black box theater could provide year-round revenue versus the seven or eight months the amphitheater could provide while also reactivating building that has laid fallow for years. The site of the proposed amphitheater could provide needed parking in the meantime, for the black box theater and the Arts District in general.
The City Council is poised to approve, at its meeting next month, a $1.6-million amendment to a $8.5-million bond ordinance approved last spring for the Hamilton Arts District projects. The additional $1.6 million would cover the costs of parking at the amphitheater site and other associated “soft costs,” for engineering and architecture.
If you agreed that the link earlier this week was pretty wonky, this one is very wonky: From the American Planning Association, “How Arts and Cultural Strategies Create, Reinforce and Enhance a Sense of Place” is a little on the long side at about 3,500 words but breaks down some key points about public art, arts and cultural programming, and urban infrastructure and design, while also citing a number of examples of cities around the country.
Earlier this year, Princeton University scrapped a plan for a $300-million arts and transit neighborhood project for the area around the Dinky. The first phase would have included a 145,000-square-foot performing arts building and the second phase would have added an additional 130,000 square feet of arts space.
