After more than a decade of fundraising, construction for a new Park Theatre will begin next month.
Park Theatre CEO Steve Jackson reiterated earlier this month that foundation and excavation work for the new, state-of-the-art theater is on target for mid-January.
“What we said is happening is happening in terms of foundation and excavation work beginning in mid-January,” Jackson said. “… The support we have been getting has been wonderful. Our fans and contributors are elated. People have been very happy to hear the news.”
Theater officials have said a potential a spring 2020 opening is a possibility. In total, Jackson said it will take about 12 to 14 months to construct the two auditorium, 485-seat theater.
No construction start date has been set at this time, but Park Theatre officials continue to meet with Hutter Construction Corporation – the project’s construction management team.
Plans to construct a new Park Theatre have been in place since the summer of 2005, when an eight person group formed to raise $200,000 to purchase the Main Street property which hadn’t served as a functioning theater since the mid-1970s.
Since then, over $6 million has been raised and over 58,000 volunteer hours have been devoted.
“We’re a bunch of yankees who are going to get the job done,” board of trustees president Caroline Hollister said during an interview earlier in the month. Hollister was one of the original eight person group.
“We love this town and we love this community and the region itself and we have gotten so much support from so many people that it sustains us, it encourages us.”
Those working to get the new theater built were given good news on Nov. 29, when the project received the final approvals needed to begin construction.
“We keep thanking people for hanging in with us,” Jackson said. “When this is all done, we will have something unique for a town of our size… It’s a unique situation, for a little town like Jaffrey to be able to do something like this.”