The theater is preparing to move from its current home on Brandy Brook Avenue, where it’s been for four-and-a-half decades. Pendragon leaders are excitedly giving tours of the new building. This project has been in the works for years, but is nearing completion.

Owner representative Harry Gordon said Malta-based MLB Construction Services has been “efficient” with their time working on the building. He and MLB site Supervisor Larry Stannard have been working together to answer tough construction questions like “how to you repair the middle portion of a load-bearing underground block wall deteriorated by water?” The answer Stannard came up with: One section at a time. This method saved them more than a month of time, Gordon said.

The building is set to be ready for use in February, with the season set to start in May.

What will the first play in the new theater be?

Harry Gordon, right, gives a tour of the Pendragon Theatre back-of-house on Friday. The theater’s new location on the corner of Woodruff and Church streets is 80% complete, two months ahead of schedule, he said. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“That’s a closely guarded secret,” Gordon said.

“But if you make a donation of $100,000, we’ll tell you,” Cloudsplitter Foundation Vice Chair Holly Wolff said with a grin.

She was joking, but Pendragon is fiercely fundraising right now. With completion coming two months early, bills are two months early, too, they said.

The project is set to cost $10.7 million in total. It has received $5.5 million from the state and $3.7 million in private donations. Pendragon Development Director Chrissie Wais said they’re still seeking $1.5 million in private funding.

The property used to be the A&P Supermarket. Then, it was the Newman and Holmes paint and glass store before sitting vacant for years. When Pendragon looked to move its stage there, they determined that they couldn’t use the existing building as the theater area. The ceilings are not high enough to fit the seat risers and load-bearing columns would obstruct views of the stage.

So the preexisting building is the “back-of-house” and they built an addition on the front parking lot to add the theater and lobby.

Construction started around this time last year.

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Raccoons out, electricity in

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The renovated building and addition will be LEED-certified, meaning it meets sustainability standards.

Gordon helped develop the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program 25 years ago. Now, he said 19 billion square feet of buildings in 150 countries are LEED certified.

The certification involves building for energy efficiency, making sure waste is recycled, creating a healthy indoor environment and using green forms of energy.

The building runs entirely on electric. Gordon said heating and cooling is handled by a “variable refrigerant flow” heat pump. This pump costs more up front than fossil fuel forms of heating and cooling, but is estimated to save Pendragon $40,000 a year in operating costs in the future.

He said the majority of the theater’s electricity comes from the community solar farm on state Route 86.

Though they loved Pendragon’s longtime home on Brandy Brook, they’re also excited for the opportunities of a new building where the toilets don’t freeze in the winter. With the heat and energy efficiency upgrades, they plan to expand their wintertime programming.

“Between fossil fuels; an old, leaky building and things freezing, if you do a show in the winter, you don’t make any money. You’re lucky if you break even,” Pendragon Board President Melinda Little said of their former location.

“There’s one disappointing change that we’re not going to be able to bring forward,” Gordon said. “The raccoons are going to have to stay behind.”

The parking lot at the new location has long been used as overflow parking for businesses in that area, namely Nori’s Village Market across Woodruff Street. Last year, the village painted nine new parking spots on Woodruff Street, along the side of the road next to the theater. This area of town is already seeing a major increase in parking after the opening of the RiverTrail Beer Works brewery. The brewery has a 40-space lot on the side, between it and the Trestle Street music space, as well as a lease agreement for around 30 more in the laundromat parking lot across the street.

The front lot at Pendragon has 14 parking spots and there are several more in the back.

Gordon said local cartographer Ezra Schwartzberg mapped out all the parking lots within a five-minute walk of the theater. There are many, and theater-goers won’t have to walk far, Gordon said.

The large front porch will be a place to hang out before and after shows. The exterior landscaping will be added later this month, Gordon said.

The lobby has large windows and a vaulted ceiling where Gordon said a 7-foot dragon — the Pendragon — will fly over attendees. The lobby will have art all over its walls.

The theater has 124 seats, 25% more seating than the current location. The room is more cavernous but still creates an intimate environment, Pendragon Managing Director Michael Aguirre said.

Gordon said the theater space could be used by musicians, dance companies or other artists for events.

Behind the stage, there’s a “secret corridor” with sound dampening for actors to covertly walk from one side to another. There are also large doors to move big scenery from shop to stage.

From center stage, going all the way back to the end of the building, there’s a long hallway with dressing rooms, a green room, a scenery shop and a costume design shop.

Costume designer Julia Squire is excited by the large, brightly lit space. The new overhead lighting casts nearly no shadows.

“And we have windows!” she shouted.

There’s a rehearsal space that’s around the same size as the main stage. At the Brandy Brook location, there’s no room for that — so actors cannot rehearse the next play as one is actively running, leading to a “dark period” between each show. If they’re able to rehearse while a play is running, there will be a faster transition time and Pendragon can fit more productions in a season.

Gordon also sees the rehearsal room as being a popular place for community meetings, poetry readings, dance classes or music.

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Funding

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This project kicked off with a $2.5 million share of the nearly $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the village got in 2018. The theater was the largest private recipient of the total grant.

The project also received $2 million in a Restore New York Communities Initiative grant, a $500,000 Main Street Grant and $400,000 in Smart Growth Grants.

The campaign was stalled for several years during the coronavirus pandemic, during which, construction costs have risen sharply.

NBT Bank, the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation, the village of Saranac Lake and the Cloudsplitter Foundation have provided $2 million in “bridge loans” while theater owners wait for state funding.

The theater’s “Keet, Wolff, Gordon Challenge” seeks to raise $500,000 by opening day, with a group of donors offering to give an additional $100,000 in honor of these three people’s contributions if the money is raised by then.

Another challenge seeks to raise up to $100,000 by the end of the year, matching any donation of $30,000 or more for near-term construction milestones.

There’s also a “Take a Seat” campaign where $1,000 donations get the donor a nameplate on the armrest of a seat with their name or the name of someone they want to honor.

Cloudsplitter holds the mortgage for the building, since it is hard for a nonprofit like Pendragon to get financial backing from normal financial institutions. For every $100,000 pledge in the next several years, Cloudsplitter is reducing the mortgage for Pendragon.

To donate, go to pendragontheatre.org/donate.

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Pendragon’s place

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Pendragon’s leaders said the theater is a hub of entertainment, education and economic development.

“Theater is a core competence in Saranac Lake,” Wolff said.

In the past 40 years, some locals who have performed or produced on the Pendragon stage have gone on to win Tony awards, the experience has informed their careers, she said, and Pendragon is cited in the biographies of people at theaters around the county more and more. Several plays have premiered at Pendragon and gone on to play off-Broadway in Manhattan. Wais knows adults who credit Pendragon with helping them break out of their shells as kids.

As the theater prepares for the big move, they are cleaning out the Brandy Brook location. The last major clean-up day is today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

They are offering pizza, donuts and high-fives in exchange for help. There are also large items like a sofa, table or cabinets they are looking to get rid of.

Little thanked the community for all of their support throughout this project. She said it could not happen without them.