The town has been approached by a theatrical group interested in making use of the auditorium building on the town-owned former Schlumberger property.
The auditorium — sometimes called “the Schlumberger theater” — is beside the Philip Johnson building, the former office building being studied as a possible site for a Maurice Sendak museum.
“We have a group that’s interested in the theater at Schlumberger, aside from the Sendak people,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said, “for a professional theater, strictly theater — not in competition with the Theater Barn, not in competition with the Playhouse, not in competition with anything that we currently have in Ridgefield. At least not in direct competition anyway.”
Marconi would not give a name or names for the people interested in using the building.
“I’m not at liberty to do that at this point,” he said.
“I can’t go into a lot of detail. There’s interest to use that theater as a professional venue,” he said. “They are professional theater people, but I don’t know how they themselves are going to organize.”
He did say the interested parties are from Ridgefield.
Marconi said he’d been talking to them for “a couple of months” and that he would discuss the prospects for their use of the building with the selectmen — possibly at the board’s Dec. 9 meeting, but probably not in an open meeting, at this point.
“I’ll probably give them an overview then, in executive session — unless the people are on board and want to come in and talk about it,” he said.
Are the people who are interested in the auditorium looking to buy or lease the building?
“They said they’re open to whatever the town feels would be the best,” Marconi said.
Soil removal
The Schlumberger theater and Philip Johnson building — called that after the famous architect who designed it — are among the few buildings left standing after a demolition effort that has taken down most of the structures that were on the 45-acre research complex when the town purchased it for $6 million in 2011.
Following the demolition of most of the buildings by the town and its contractors, Schlumberger is paying for removal of soil on the site that was polluted by a leak in a heating fuel tank years ago.
“I believe most if not all the contaminated soil has been removed from the site,” Marconi said.
After the polluted soil is removed, the next step in “remediation” of the site will be a period of years during which the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) checks the purity of the water table through monitoring wells.
“Until the DEEP signs off on a completed remediation process, the town is not in a position to sell the property,” Marconi said.
If an arrangement with the theater group came to fruition, it might be in the form of a “short-term lease with an eventual sale,” Marconi said.
“I don’t see us making money on it, unless it’s an outright sale,” he said.
“In my experience as first selectman, I think it would be better if the town were to sell the property at such time when the remediation has been completed.”
He had no specifics on when a proposal might come together.
“They didn’t talk to me about timetables,” he said.
“I don’t know how fast it will move — hopefully sooner rather than later. But judging from the response of the people, it may be something that will be on our agenda sooner rather than later — but that remains to be seen.”
Any deal that involves the lease or sale of town property must be approved by voters at either a town meeting or referendum.
“The same thing we’ve been going through with every proposal we’ve dealt with — Board of Selectmen, public hearing, Town Meeting approval. Who knows, maybe even a referendum at some future date. But at the very minimum, a public hearing and a town meeting if it’s a simple lease. But if it’s more complicated, that’s up to the Board of Selectmen.”
For either a lease or a sale, Marconi said, the theater would be on a small parcel cut out for it, separate from the town’s remaining 30 acres of empty land. That acreage is being studied by a committee that has done a survey and charrette of public opinion on how the land should be used, and it is expecting to do a second survey.
“This use does not have any impact on the use being looked at by the nine-member committee for the balance of the property,” Marconi said.
Sendak museum
The idea of using the Philip Johnson building, next door to the auditorium, as a Maurice
Sendak museum is also still being studied.
“I met with the board of the Sendak Foundation, and once again toured the Philip Johnson building, which some members of the board had not actually seen,” Marconi said.
He added that there is also talk of looking into the use of a third building left on the site — the warehouse-like structure called the “Skydome building” — for the Sendak museum.
“There are people in the museum circles who feel that type of facility lends itself more to a gallery/museum than a more traditional type building — people who are in the business of museums.
“One member in particular felt it was a wonderful location for the museum,” he said.
“But the focus remains to use the Philip Johnson as the future Maurice Sendak museum, and there continues to be consensus with that.”
Could the theater group use the auditorium while the Maurice Sendak museum occupied the Philip Johnson building next door?
“Yup,” Marconi said. “And hopefully some kind of a positive relationship would come from that.”
The post At Schlumberger site: Theater group is interested appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.