‘This Is Disappointing’: Playhouse Renovation Estimate Up to $7.9 Million, Double Original Budget

Due primarily to the unexpected expense of a new HVAC system, the widely anticipated renovation of the town-owned movie theater on Elm Street is now projected to cost about $7.9 million, more than twice the initial budget of $3.9 million, officials say.

The town originally anticipated re-using the existing HVAC system in the Playhouse, and budgeted about $400,000 for that part of the project, but due to new Code requirements and the need for better air circulation, the cost has risen by nearly $2 million, to $2.3 million, according to Department of Public Works officials.

In addition, the town and its contractors found, after starting the interior demolition of the 1923-built Playhouse, that more structural work was needed than they’d anticipated, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday.

“We noticed that during previous work in the building they actually did some damage to the structure itself, taking out some bearing items, some of the girders are separating, some of the areas that needed to be replaced were refashioned,” Mann said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“So the structural engineers mentioned things that we’ve got to do on the structural side to make the building whole again. And then, given the fact of, after the eight separate design iterations that we went through to try and fit everything into the building and make it compliant with current standards and make it accessible throughout. We placed the elevator in the center of the building. We were able to put the bathrooms on the first floor down below. That caused us to have to raise the ceiling height on the first floor, giving us enough headroom to put the bathrooms there, and then at that point in time we were not able to use the balcony that was there because it was going to be inaccessible. We had to see if we could get an elevator with a midstop, and to be able to utilize the balcony. The balcony was going to be inaccessible so therefore unusable. So at that point in time, we were able to open up the second floor and add an additional 1,200 square feet of area to the second floor, and take up that balcony space.”

The town also found that it had to create a third floor specifically to house the new HVAC system, because officials didn’t want it attached to an accessory structure in the rear of the building, and the Playhouse roof isn’t strong enough to support it, he said.

“So given all that, we came up with an additional amount needed for the project of just over $4 million,” Mann said.

The town is in talks with CinemaLab, future operator of the playhouse and New Canaan’s partner in the public-private partnership, about how much of the additional cost will be borne by them, officials said.

The public works director had first noted the rise in the Playhouse renovation cost during a March 7 Board of Finance meeting. There, Mann said that the town had asked whether it could retain the outdated HVAC system used by the former operator of the movie theater, Bow Tie, at least for a period of time, but “the problem is that if we tried to do that, we wouldn’t be able to replace the system without actually gutting the building again to try to get the clean air systems that we need, so all the duct work that we need we’d have to gut the building again.”

Members of both municipal boards said they were surprised by the unexpected additional cost.

Board of Finance member Amy Murphy Carroll said during the appointed body’s meeting earlier this month, “When the cost of renovating this building—I’m just saying, when it was brought forth, ‘We’re going to keep the building and this is what it could cost to keep it’—I had no idea that there was going to be a major cost down the road on this. I mean it’s just, wow.”

Selectman Nick Williams said on Tuesday, referring to the three-person Board of Selectmen, “I think the three of us share the support for this Playhouse and keeping its historic look, continuing to keep it a historic building there, but obviously this is disappointing and a bit surprising.”

Closed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and available to a new tenant since later that year, when Bow Tie Cinemas terminated its lease, the Playhouse is expected to reopen later this year (its centennial). The town in recent months has approved a series of contracts to ready the Playhouse for that reopening.

Williams asked whether CinemaLab knows about the increased cost. DPW Buildings Superintendent Bill Oestmann said they do, though the parties will talk more fully later this week. 

Asked by Williams whether the town is at risk of losing CinemaLab as its partner, Oestmann said the New Jersey-based company has not indicated that. 

Williams said, “This is a material-adverse event, given the size of it. I mean, you are doubling the price.”

Selectman Kathleen Corbet asked what the town’s option would be if CinemaLab chose not to participate in sharing the additional costs.

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said, “They [CinemaLab] have been involved all along in the expansion of the second floor. They are benefitting from the expanded space.”

The selectmen also asked whether the price tag would have doubled if the town hadn’t decided to use a “design-build” work model for the Playhouse renovation. As opposed to a traditional model, the design-build is meant to allow contractor Alden Bailey to work with a local architect, as well as the engineer on the renovation project, to move more quickly through the design and bidding processes.

Mann said both the designer and contractor feel that “the cost is less with the method that we chose, the design-build, and quicker and better.”

He added, “We are not happy with the numbers or the situation, but the fact of the matter is if we had gone a traditional route, the traditional route would have been worse.”

The designer on the Playhouse project is New Canaan-based Architectural Preservation Studios. According to the firm’s website, its professional staff includes Senior Project Manager Rose Scott Long. Her husband, Carl Rothbart, is a principal of the firm. The firm has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts from the town for the Playhouse project. Rose Scott Long, or Rose Rothbart, serves as secretary of the municipal Historical Review Committee, according to the town website. After a Nov. 11 Committee meeting, she gave an interview to New Canaan Police that was supportive of Moynihan in the wake of the first selectman’s screaming, profanity-laden meltdown in the hallway outside a second-floor board room that morning (see the Dec. 9 interview notes on page 15 in the police report here).