Home | Yearly News Archive | Advertisers | Blog | Contact Us |
|
Friday, March 29, 2024 |
|
Sorg Opera House |
Post Reply |
Author | |
Vivian Moon
MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Posted: Sep 03 2015 at 7:57am |
12:00 a.m. Thursday,
Sept. 3, 2015 Sorg renovation continues; still seeking
donations
By Ed Richter Staff Writer Renovations
at the Sorg Opera House on “We’ve
gutted out most of what we wanted to do,” said Chuck Miller, of the Sorg Opera
Revitalization Group. “But we’ve come to a screeching halt as the rest of the
work needs a contractor.” Some
of the volunteers working on the opera house are licensed electricians and
plumbers who work at various hours of the day and night, said Bob Melloh of The
Sorg Opera House, built in 1891 by industrialist Paul J. Sorg, is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places and hosted two band concerts conducted by
John Philip Sousa band concerts in 1898 and in 1919. “The
building is pretty sound,” Melloh said. “We want to work on getting the theater
operating first to generate revenue then work on the The
attached Miller
said it took the organization about 28 months to be granted nonprofit status,
which will now allow the spending of grant funding to get the building
compliant with the state building code. He said a roofing contractor is
repairing the roof between the two buildings which he said was about 70 percent
completed. In
addition, the bathrooms were gutted and are now ready for cosmetic work that
includes new ceilings, walls and floors. Both
Melloh and Miller said in order to get a temporary certificate of occupancy,
the group needs to make repairs on the fire escapes and doors, exit lighting
and sprinklers over the stage. So far, the plumbing and roofing work has come
in at more than $16,000 than expected. He said it will take between $8.2
million and $8.6 million to complete the entire project “I
was hoping to have most of this done by September,” he said. Miller
said the organization is looking into obtaining grants and other state funding
that are available to nonprofits and is working with a consultant to help with
fund-raising. They are also listed on a crowd-funding kick-starter mechanism,
preservationfunder.com and has a $35,000 goal by Oct. 13 to help pay to get the
theater code compliant so that it can hold benefit concerts. For
more information, visit their website, http://sorgoperahouse.org/. How
to help ‘Get the Doors Open’ To
make a donation online, visit preservationfunder.com. |
|
VietVet
MUSA Council Joined: May 15 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7008 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
I hope this group is doing this for the love of the building because they sure aren't going to turn a profit if the building will cost 8.2 to 8.6 million to renovate it in anyone's lifetime.
Just wondering if, when completed, it will be enough to keep it afloat catering to just the arts people. Might be a time when revenue generation may happen by inviting the non-arts people in to watch movies again like the old Colonial Theater days. Same goes for the Manchester Hotel. Renovation costs are astronomical and would take eons to turn a profit beyond the renovation costs. Based on the cost of renovation, and knowing both buildings are not considered high market value (with the city asking $350,000 for the Manchester and finally taking 1 buck), what is the reason anyone would want to tackle a losing money effort as these seem to be in the first place? |
|
I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.
|
|
Miss Kitty
MUSA Immigrant Joined: Oct 29 2012 Status: Offline Points: 61 |
Post Options
Thanks(3)
|
Well, Ole Chucky boy is making a profit. He bought the Sorg Opera house in 2013 for $32,000 and sold it to the "SORG OPERA REVITILIZATION GROUP LLC" in June of 2015 for $173,000!!! Bet I know where all those donations went now.
|
|
Post Reply | |
Tweet
|
Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |
This page was generated in 0.102 seconds.
Copyright ©2024 MiddletownUSA.com | Privacy Statement | Terms of Use | Site by Xponex Media | Advertising Information |