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Feasibility report due soon on Pendragon’s relocation to downtown

Pendragon Theatre’s board is looking at the Tousley Storage Building, also known as the Madden’s Transfer and Storage building, in downtown Saranac Lake as a possible location for a new, 175-seat theater to replace its existing one on Brandy Brook Avenue. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

SARANAC LAKE — Pendragon Theatre’s Board of Trustees should know soon whether it would be feasible to relocate the theater downtown.

North Woods Engineering was hired in October to conduct a feasibility study of Pendragon’s proposal to convert the Tousley Storage Building, also known as the Madden’s Transfer and Storage building, at 47-49 Main St. into a new, 175-seat theater. Holly Wolff, chairwoman of the theater’s board, said the report should be complete in about three weeks.

If the report shows the plan is feasible, Wolff said the board “would get much more serious” about fundraising.

“When you go to donors, you can now say, ‘We’ve looked at this building. Here’s how we think it could work,'” Wolff said Thursday. “In addition, we can start working more actively with (building owner William “Billy” Madden III) to see if we can come to an agreement on how we go forward.”

Pendragon Theatre has been located in a former dairy barn off of Brandy Brook Avenue since 1986, five years after it was founded downtown. It’s situated on a quarter-acre lot between a veterinary hospital, a day-care center, a college building, and a cemetery.

At a public meeting in September, Wolff said the 125-seat theater needs electrical and plumbing upgrades, and is “marginally compliant” with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It would cost about $1 million to repair the building, and rebuilding the theater on-site would cost more than $3 million, she said.

Given those costs, Pendragon’s board commissioned a study that found the best alternative is to relocate downtown at a “conceptual” cost of $5 million. Proponents say the Tousley Building, one of several sites the board considered, would provide more space for patrons and actors, let the theater increase year-round programming and further Saranac Lake’s downtown revitalization efforts.

“We’re still targeting this location, and we’re still planning on moving downtown for all of the same reasons,” Wolff said Thursday. “It will bring what we can do to a lot more people a lot more conveniently.”

North Woods’ feasibility study is being funded by a $20,000 New York Main Street grant from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. Asked if it will be made public when it’s completed, Wolff said the dollar estimates and specifics wouldn’t likely be made public, but whether or not the report found the move is feasible would be released.

She noted that there’s no agreement with Madden yet, “just conversation over a period of time.”

“He knows we’re interested,” she said. “We know he’s interested, but he’s proceeding with doing other things, as he rightfully should until such time as we can put something together. He’s very helpful, very cooperative and very supportive of what we’re trying to do.”

Madden said he’s been talking about the proposal with Wolff, Joe Garso of North Woods Engineering and architect Jim Hotaling on a regular basis.

“They’re wanting to look at the building more and more,” he said.

Madden said he thinks having Pendragon relocate to Main Street would be a big win for the community.

“Bringing something to downtown that would help foot traffic, especially in the evening, and get people to walk from the Hotel Saranac to Pendragon — if it was in the Tousley Building, in my mind, would be wonderful,” he said. “I think it would be awesome for the downtown.”

At the same time, Madden said he’s not slowing down with making improvements to the building. He said he spent more than $60,000 on a new roof, and he recently was awarded a $21,000 Saranac Lake Local Development Corporation grant to help pay for installation of $40,000 in new windows and other work.

The building is home to several tenants including the new Adirondack Loon Center, the Adirondack Community-based Trails and Lodging System, Saranac Lake Discount Liquor, artist Georgeanne Gaffney, who has a second-floor studio, a contractor and, soon, a private laundry service. Much of the building is also still used for storage, Madden said.

“If this all comes to fruition, then I’ll have to find a building or build a building to move all that,” he said.

How many of those tenants would have to relocate isn’t certain at this point. Wolff noted that retail space hasn’t been left out of their plans.

“The Maddens building has a lot of square footage, and depending on the engineers, it may be more than we need, at least for awhile,” she said. “The Main (Street) storefront space may be worth more to retail than for our uses if the space is there.” (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story did not contain the last two paragraphs.)

When the proposal was first outlined at a well-attended meeting in September, it sparked concerns from some of Pendragon’s longtime actors and patrons. Some questioned whether an expensive new theater would be profitable. Others worried that the theater’s existing location and productions would suffer during the time money is being raised for the downtown site. There was also some criticism of Pendragon’s board for not doing enough to communicate its plans to its supporters.

Veteran Pendragon performers Fran Yardley and Burdette Parks said they don’t know any more about the plan than what was presented in September

“Our reservations we had then about the project and how it was being handled have not changed,” Yardley and Parks wrote in an email Thursday. “We wish all of the alternatives moving forward could be given equal consideration and hope that all the relevant studies and reports will be made public.”

Wolff said a second meeting was held to talk about the feasibility study, but only one person showed up. It was also discussed at a Saranac Lake Free Library lunch program in December.

“We continue to listen to ideas that people have, and collect ideas from actors, and bring in ideas from people who have a lot of experience in theater design,” Wolff said. “We don’t have a final design in any way, shape or form, so we continue to take a lot of input.”

In the meantime, Wolff said the board is restarting its capital campaign plan to better determine how much money it could raise for the project. Funding would be sought from individual donors and private foundations. Wolff also said Pendragon would apply for state grant funding this year through the North Country Regional Economic Development Council.

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