Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theater nixes moving plan, lists property for sale

Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater has ditched plans to build on property it acquired in 2020 following the implementation of new zoning restrictions and community pushback on their expansion design, theater officials said.

Now they're selling the property at 22 Long Island Ave., listed for $25 million, after nixing plans to build an expanded theater at the site overlooking Sag Harbor Cove and John Steinbeck Waterfront Park.

For now, the theater will remain in the location where it opened more than three decades ago, with its lease extended through 2027.

The 299-seat theater is a cultural and community center for the village and long ago outgrew the current space it rents at 1 Bay St., executive director Tracy Mitchell said in a Newsday interview.

But Adam Potter, the chairman of Friends of Bay Street — a nonprofit set up to buy and build a new theater — said in a statement that the acquired property was “no longer viable to build a theater as originally envisioned.”

Mitchell said the Friends of Bay Street paid just over $13 million in 2020 for the property, but didn't have more funds on top of that for construction.

In the meantime, the village implemented a waterfront overlay district to control development in response to proposed waterfront condominiums.

Then when theater officials released an initial rendering of its proposed expansion, it was considered too large for what the village wanted, said Mitchell, who added that she thought the plans were "beautiful."

She said theater officials tried “every which way” but couldn’t come up with a plan that fit into the overlay district.

But Sag Harbor Mayor James Larocca told Newsday the theater never submitted concrete plans to the village for review.

“They never applied to do anything,” Larocca said, adding that he believes the village has tried to be a friend to the theater. “We couldn’t help them advance a new theater if they never put one forward.”

In response, Mitchell said the first plan faced community pushback. Then in trying to reduce the size of the space and comply with the overlay district as costs mounted “it simply didn’t make sense" to move, she said.

The mayor said he had hoped the theater would pursue a location on nearby Bridge Street, where Potter owns property.

Mitchell said there haven’t been discussions yet for a site on that street, but the theater would consider “any other location that might work for the entire community.”

In the meantime, the listing agent for 22 Long Island Ave., Hal Zwick from Compass’ Hamptons Commercial Real Estate Team, said in an interview the property is a rare waterfront retail site for the Hamptons market.

He added that the dated building on the site, which housed a 7-Eleven, could be gutted and rebuilt to “create something that’s more beautiful for the village.”

Back at Bay Street Theater's original location, plans for a full lineup of summer performance are underway after a sold-out crowd there for a show Saturday night.