What's up with Old Town Hall?

My wife Kristina (owner of Time & Tide Fine Art on Market St.) and I seriously pursued the idea of fulfilling Tom and Diane Mayos’ very attractive vision for a performing arts/retail center in Old Town Hall. Along with Mr. Chris Florio, we met with the owner, Mr. Hanney, and his team. We toured the facilities.

Kristina also spoke with Glenn Gibbs. He indicated that he, and the town in general, would LOVE to see that building saved and developed, but there’s a boatload of obstacles. The asking price ($500K) is way too high. And the building has not appreciated in the years that Hanney has owned it, quite the opposite. The deterioration continues, and Glenn feels it may be accelerating.

We understand that an unnamed interested party who looked at the building in the last year was reportedly stunned by the deterioration since they last looked at it 2-3 years ago. Their estimate to make the building usable (as office space) was $4M. This may be way high, but even half of that is daunting.

The building remains under historic preservation restrictions.

Having the Mayo deal "in the works" allows Hanney to keep the town off his back. "Look, I'm trying to work a deal, but the guy won't move!" On the other hand, some who have seen the lease contract offered by Hanney say it’s very lopsided in Hanney’s favor, to Mayo’s disadvantage.

Some have said that the only gambit that will get Hanney to budge on his end is publicity. "Bill Hanney" is a commodity, his name is at the top of every North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) ad. He needs his good name. If that were threatened, he might move to protect it.

The planning office provided us a marketing consulting company report from 2008. It indicates that the property does not have strong potential for retail.

Tom Mayo spoke with Kristina in person at the gallery. His attitude was that the Mayos are still very much "in." The latest delay: Hanney bought the building for cash but then mortgaged it (just as we would probably have done), but instead of using the money to restore this building, he sank the money into NSMT. The mortgage bundles the Ipswich building with those at NSMT. Mayo's lawyer (Don Greenough) wants a letter from the bank assuring them that if the building is purchased, the bank will release the lien on it. Whether such a paper has been produced, we don’t know; it’s technically none of our business.

Tom described the lease option negotiation: Mayos sent a lease option contract, and Hanney returned it with piles of additional demands, including a demand that they abide by the laws of the State of New York. Interior paint surfaces to be maintained by the tenant (what paint?), etc. Mayo/Greenough believe it's a smoke screen to allow Hanney to hang on to the building. The theory being that Hanney thinks the property will appreciate when the economy picks up.

There has also been talk of a jazz club being part of the “new Old Town Hall.” Kristina asked the question we’ve heard from others a number of times: "Tom, what is your interest in the jazz club?" His face lit up. He wants to own and run it. He doesn’t seem to have any experience in such an enterprise, however.

Our experience tells us that a theatre company (and probably a jazz club) needs a deep-pockets sugar daddy on top of a crack fundraising operation, in addition to a theatre-savvy “artistic director.”