The nonprofit group trying to build a 400-seat performance venue on the site of the former St. Lawrence Church in Portland is attempting a “Hail Mary” to keep the project alive.

The Hill Arts says it needs to raise $7 million for the theater’s construction this year, or it will be forced to cancel the $18 million project because of expiring city approvals and rising costs. About $11 million has already been raised, but the group says it needs to have the total budget in hand before construction can continue.

The group and the plan’s backers say the proposed building atop Munjoy Hill will provide a much-needed, midsized venue for community groups, artists and musicians. Most local nonprofit arts organizations are now hosted in smaller venues.

“We need donors who would love the opportunity to bring a state-of-the-art theater to the community and to all of the nonprofits who will benefit from having this building,” said Deirdre Nice, The Hill Arts executive director.

The Hill Arts referred to this fundraising campaign in a press release as a “Hail Mary” to try and save the 400-seat theater project. The fundraising began with a $5 million anonymous pledge in 2021. The group has spent $2 million on architectural designs, breaking ground, bringing utilities to the site and construction documents, among other costs.

The Hill Arts received site plan approval from the city’s planning board in May 2023, said Kevin Kraft, the city’s director of planning and urban development. Site plan approvals are valid for up to three years and work has to begin within that period, Kraft said. Once site work has started, the approval remains valid unless work stops for a period of more than 12 months, Kraft said.

Some site work on the proposed theater did take place last fall and winter. But The Hill Arts says construction can’t continue until the group knows where the remaining money is coming from. Nice said the group cannot afford to apply for new approval, given the rising costs and potential new requirements.

Other than the $2 million spent by The Hill Arts on the project, the money raised so far has been in the form of pledges. If The Hill Arts does not raise enough money to continue construction, those pledges remain with the donors, said Julia Kirby, development director.  

The St. Lawrence Church was built in 1897. After the congregation dwindled years later, it was sold to private developers in the mid-1980s. Nice bought the church in 1993 with the idea of turning it into an arts and cultural center. She sold it to the nonprofit group in 1996. The church’s parish hall, which now houses a 100-seat performance space at 76 Congress St., opened for shows in 2001. That space will continue to host performances whether or not the larger theater gets built.

The nonprofit group at first planned to convert the church itself into a larger performance space, but structural problems made that impossible and the church was demolished in 2008. The current effort to build a new theater on that site has been in the works ever since. The nonprofit group had been called St. Lawrence Arts, but changed its name to The Hill Arts in 2023.

Supporters of the 400-seat venue say it will help nonprofits from across southern Maine and add to the regional arts scene. The Maine State Music Theatre, which stages musicals at Bowdoin College in Brunswick during most of the summer, is hoping to use The Hill Arts’ new space for shows in late summer and early fall.

Curt Dale Clark, Maine State’s artistic director, said the theater needs to expand its schedule of shows to bring in more revenue and keep up with rising costs. The Pickard Theater at Bowdoin holds about 600 people, but the 400-seat theater on Munjoy Hill would be big enough for the kinds of shows Maine State Music Theatre wants to put on, Clark said.

“It would allow us to continue producing shows into the fall and up to Christmas,” said Clark, who is also on the board of directors of the Maine Tourism Association. “We feel there are still a lot of people in Maine then who would partake of what we offer.”

The Hill Arts’ funding appeal comes at a time when many in Portland’s music and arts communities have come out against a proposal by concert giant Live Nation to build a 3,300-capacity, for-profit venue across from City Hall on Congress Street. Many have said the large national company would hurt smaller, locally-run performance spaces.

The City Council passed a moratorium on new venues with more than 2,000 seats in August, after nearly four hours of public comment. In February, the council unanimously approved extending the moratorium for another six months.

Nice, who ran Silly’s Restaurant in Portland from 1988 to 2003, worries that if The Hill Arts fails to raise the needed funds, it’s unlikely another group will attempt to build a 400-seat theater in Portland aimed at serving nonprofit and community arts organizations.

“This is not an easy endeavor, even if you’re a for-profit developer, and we’re a tiny little nonprofit with a three-person staff,” said Nice. “It’s really been a labor of love for us.”