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The
Richmond Ferry Church, on the corner of West Ferry Street and Richmond Avenue, is
beginning its construction process for its $5 million renovation
project.
Five years after 467 Richmond Avenue LLC bought the property from Alleyway
Theater in 2013, planning for the project began at the beginning of the summer.
The renovations are expected to be completed in 2016.
Rachel
Heckl, lead partner of 467 Richmond Avenue, has assembled a team to direct the project. It includes communication director and archivist, Julia Purpera, who works on the project’s social media
and preserving the historic significance of the church; Emily Tucker,
owner of the Benjamin Gallery and creator of the site’s Benjamin Contemporary
Gallery; and Leah Pabst, who contributes to the environmental aspects of the
project.
Goals of
the renovation project consists of a black box theater, which will seat about
110 people and an amphitheater, which will seat about 600, will be used for
multicultural art performances as well as weddings
and other community events.
Plans include a commissary kitchen in
the basement of the church to be used by caterers during events. Independent
bakers, pizza makers, and food trucks will also be invited to use the space.
The project
team and the team of Blue Sky Concepts intend to keep as much of the original
building as possible such as the stained glass windows.
“We’re hoping to be very community based and to help the
children around here and to offer music classes for the children and dance
classes for the children and kind of have like a little place for them to go,”
Purpera said. By Ryan Gilliam and Nicole Montanino
