Making a Business of Art
By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff, Wednesday, September 12
BRATTLEBORO -- From the business side, there is no magic about running the Latchis Theater and Hotel and keeping it profitable.
"Business and the arts are not different categories of endeavor," said Jim Maxwell, a founding member of the Brattleboro Arts Initiative, which purchased the Latchis complex in 2001. "They are totally intertwined."
But for the people who frequent the building, whether to see a movie or performance or to spend a night in one of its 30 rooms, it's the magic of the building that keeps them coming back.
The building, completed in 1938, is the last of the 14 theaters Demetrius Latchis and his family built around New England.
In 2001, Spero and Elizabeth Latchis sold the building to the Brattleboro Arts Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and promoting performing arts space to town.
With the help of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, BAI came to the rescue of the building, which was in some disrepair, realizing that once renovated, it could provide additional performing space downtown and be an economic driver for the area as well.
The Latchis Group is the perfect example of how the arts and business can be combined to create a sum bigger than its parts, said Maxwell.
"The hotel has been going gangbusters," he said, with 71 percent occupancy in August, a record for the hotel.
"The business supports the arts mission," said Gail Nunziata, the managing director of BAI and the Latchis Group.
It costs about $200,000 a year to run the Latchis Group, said Rick Hashagen, the president of the Latchis corporate board. Operating expenses are paid through profits from the hotel, the movie theater and retail leases in its annex.
A $300,000 grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Renewal is almost gone, said Nunziata.
The grant was used to make the building safe and bring it up to modern code requirements, and included work on the building's electrical and plumbing systems, the installation of sprinklers and an alarm system and asbestos abatement, said Nunziata.
"We have gone ahead and done the kinds of improvements you don't see," she said.
But visible changes to the building's interior aren't far off, said Maxwell.
Space recently vacated by New England Youth Theater -- which moved to the old Tri-State Automotive building at the corner of Flat and Elm streets -- will eventually become a theater, with 99 seats.
"This will be a flexible new venue," said Maxwell, and will not only be utilized to show movies, but will also be available for educational purposes, speeches and lectures.
And the space will be available to supplement the initiative's "Live at the Latchis" events, a series of speeches, musical events, community meetings and cultural celebrations.
But more important than any new theater space, said Hashagen, is "everyone is asking for new bathrooms."
The building will also have a new "green room," where entertainers and performers can relax prior to a show.
Though some of the planned renovations will be paid for through grants, most of the $650,000 needed will be raised from the community during an as yet unnamed capital campaign, or what Maxwell called "Phase II."
"At some point, the main theater will also be renovated," said Maxwell, as will much of the building's facade and its marquee, during "Phase III."
The Latchis Group is already in the process of replacing the soft goods -- beds and linens and similar items -- in the building's hotel rooms, which Maxwell described as "a business decision."
A recent gift of a digital projector allows Latchis staff to show more independent productions in the main theater, but all those film buffs need not worry that digital will replace film stock, as the Latchis Group will continue to show 35mm movies.