DavidsonNews.net

Davidson has signed a contract to buy the former Baptist church at Armour and Watson streets for $595,000, and agreed to lease the space for at least five years to Davidson Community Players. The building also would house recreation programs and could find future use as a neighborhood community center.

News of the purchase and agreement with the theater group emerged at the Town Board’s monthly work session Tuesday night at Town Hall.

During the meeting, the board held a public hearing on a proposal to seek up to $625,000 in financing for the purchase, which previously had been described only as financing to buy an unspecified “community building” for Parks & Recreation Department programs.

Town Manager Leamon Brice said the town received a signed contract for the purchase Tuesday afternoon. The deal actually involves several parcels, once all part of the church property but since subdivided, he said. The land and church are currently owned by a company called Groveco LLC, which is listed in county land records as having an address on Westmoreland Farm Road.

JOINT DEAL

Mr. Brice said the town has agreed on terms of cooperation for “joint use of the facility” with the theater group for at least five years.

On Wednesday, the theater group’s director, Cindy Rice, was excited about prospects for the new space.

“Everyone involved with Davidson Community Players is so very thankful and excited about this opportunity for our organization and our community,” she told DavidsonNews.net. “This unique partnership is surely an example of what makes the town of Davidson and its leadership so special.”

“This church building, which we will convert to an intimate theatre space, will be the first official home for Davidson Community Players in our 40-year history,” she said. “It is truly a momentous occasion in our organization.”

Ms. Rice said Davidson Community Players will raise money for renovations designed to bring the building up to code requirements. The new facility will allow the company to expand programming, particularly for children, as early as next fall, she said.

Davidson Community Players has begun working with an architect to design renovations to the former church that would turn it into a 120-seat theater, Ms. Rice said. Seating for children could be 140 to 150.

“It’s similar in size to the black box at Davidson College in terms of seating capacity,” Ms. Rice said.

She said the company would continue to stage larger productions every summer, in Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall, “as long as the college is willing to rent the facility to us.”

TOWN USE?

Mr. Brice said the theater group would use the church as a “temporary performing facility until a point when they have a more permanent facility. At that time the town would potentially sell it to them or continue to use it for a small community center in that neighborhood.”

The town is to receive loan offers from banks on Wednesday and will send its financing request to the Local Government Commission in Raleigh by Dec. 7, for action at the commission’s Jan. 8 meeting. Mr. Brice said the deal could close soon after that.

IN NEED OF SPACE

Davidson Community Players have long been in search of their own home. The group produced its most recent show, “Driving Miss Daisy,” in a 90-seat theater at Children’s Community School on Griffith Street. It sold all the seats for the show, even after adding performances. “I wish we had a bigger theater – a 300-seat theater,” Ms. Rice said after the sellout.

Commissioner Bruce McMillen said the joint deal with the town is critical for the theater group.

“It’s needed because (Davidson Community Players) is a valuable local resource that has a great history in Davidson and essentially operates at the whim of the college when it comes to performance space,” Mr. McMillen said. “The only time it can ever use the Duke theater (at the college) is in the summer months, when students aren’t on campus. And Hodgson Hall is currently being renovated and that’s reserved for student productions also. So it puts Davidson Community Players in a bind.”

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