The Redevelopment Agency amended an agreement to lease the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts to the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) from 10 years to 30 years while authorizing the final $100,000 payment to the Rahway Arts District.
Tag Archives: Hamilton Stage
Some $125k spent to prepare Hamilton facility
Almost $125,000 in funding by the Redevelopment Agency has been spent for opening the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts, according to an annual status update provided to the agency.
Continue reading Some $125k spent to prepare Hamilton facility
A look inside Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts
 |
| The rehearsal hall can seat up to 60. |
Work continues on the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts in anticipation of a grand opening this fall, with an open house preview expected in May as other preview events around the Arts District continue this spring.
Continue reading A look inside Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts
Hamilton Stage coming along
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.Lease agreement approved for Hamilton Stage
A 10-year lease agreement between the Redevelopment Agency and Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) for the Hamilton Stage began Oct. 1.
Redevelopment Agency commissioners adopted a resolution at their September meeting authorizing the lease, which will last through September 2011 2021.
The Redevelopment Agency, which has “no intention of operating [the site], other than the use of parking to support other downtown activities when no performances are being held,” will receive $100 per year, according to the resolution. The 14,000-square-foot Hamilton Stage will have a “200-seat proscenium theater with rehearsal hall, flexible 50-seat public space, dressing room and other support facilities.”The Redevelopment Agency owns the former Bell Building (Tax Block 167 – Lots 38, 39) that’s being renovated as well as the former Hamilton Laundry site (Block 167 – Lots 44, 45) where a parking lot is planned. Both projects are expected to be completed in the spring.
***
Interesting story from the Upper East Side/East Harlem (“Carnegie Hill” now, apparently), about artist space and housing, which Rahway has been planning to do.
A vacant, former school on the Upper East Side/East Harlem will be rehabbed into affordable artist housing, according to this report from DNAinfo.com. Vacant for 15 years, the 113-year old Gothic Revival style building will be transformed into 90 affordable homes for artists and include 10,000 square feet of space for arts groups. The former P.S. 109 will be called El Barrio’s Artspace and is being developed by a Minnesota-based nonprofit, Artspace, with El Barrio’s Operation Fightback.
The project has been in development for five years, amid a number of changes, including the size increasing from 70 to 90 units. Construction would begin in December and take two years, according to the report.
Agency makes 2nd payment to Arts District
The Redevelopment Agency last month authorized the second of three $100,000 payments to the Arts District to cover start-up costs of the Hamilton Stage for Performing Arts.
The Arts District and the Redevelopment Agency entered into a shared services agreement in January, with the agency agreeing to provide $300,000 in increments of $100,000 per year, based on the availability of funding.
The Arts District has “used and intends to continue to use the funding for costs associated with support, encouragement and promotion of the arts in Rahway and associated economic development,” including the start-up operation and management of the Hamilton Stage, a 200-seat black box studio being constructed on Hamilton Street (Tax Block 167, Lots 38, 39, 42, 44 and 45), according to the resolution adopted by the Redevelopment Agency at its Sept. 7 meeting.
As of last month, about $30,000 remains from the first $100,000 payment, according to Arts District Executive Director James Kennedy. Funding has been used primarily for the development of the three-year launch plan and projected budgets for the Hamilton Stage, he said, adding that they’re now moving into grant development, fundraising strategy, lease agreements, booking and implementation.
This month, a contract was entered into with Front of House Services, a Madison-based consultant that will see the project through the opening (expected next spring) and operating the first two years, Kennedy said.
***
A friend passed along this story from The Atlantic, “Descendants of the High Line,” spotlighting four efforts around the country inspired by New York City’s wildly popular High Line, including the closest to home, Jersey City’s The Embankment.
Contract awarded for Hamilton Street parking
Two months after rejecting bids for the amphitheater parking lot project, the Redevelopment Agency awarded a $1.1-million contract to Gingerelli Bros at its meeting earlier this month. Berto Construction submitted a bid of $1.6 million. Bids were received July 29.
A pre-construction meeting is scheduled for next week, City Engineer James Housten said, after which construction should begin, including work on drainage, stream bank stabilization, curbing and lighting foundations. Work is expected to be completed in conjunction with renovations of the Hamilton Stage, which is expecting to be finished in the spring. Toms River-based Gingerelli Bros. also is the firm that was awarded the $5.825-million contract for the Hamilton Stage.
The Redevelopment Agency early this year decided to delay building the amphitheater and instead build about 115 parking spaces in the interim.
***
The center stairs of the inbound platform of Rahway Train Station finally opened today, approximately 18 months after they were closed for repairs. 18 months. NJ Transit also issued an advisory this week that as part of repairs to the elevator on the outbound platform (which are expected to last until early next month), travelers will not be able to use the sidewalk to the corner of Milton Avenue and Broad Street from Monday to Thursday of next week due to the installation of a pump and tank next to the pedestrian tunnel.
Irene leaves her mark
Few places in Rahway were spared from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene this past week. The heaving banks of the Rahway River and Milton Lake spilled out onto streets, leaving the Veterans Field underwater, felling trees along St. Georges Avenue and elsewhere.
Former Mayor James Kennedy, now executive director of the Arts District, thought the Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts, now under construction, “fared well” (photo above). The 4 inches of water on the platform “more than likely would not have had the opportunity to enter the building if it were all closed in,” he said via email. “I’m not concerned about the water here. The houses to the left, facing the building, really need to be removed; but the building will be fine,” Kennedy said.
The plan is to eventually acquire the remaining homes and create parking for Hamilton Stage and the adjacent amphitheater (photo left). Due to the rising costs of the arts projects, however, interim parking will take the space of the amphitheater for the time being.
Having grown up on the corner of River Road and Church Street, Kennedy said he’d never seen a storm this bad but is confident that more mitigation will occur upstream in the future.
For more images of flooding throughout Rahway, see our Facebook page, where we’ve shared quite a few compilations from readers. Thanks to everyone who shared their great photos!