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Sleepless in Stratford
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Business New Haven
3/18/2002
By: BNH
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Down in Stratford-on-Housatonic, town officials have been tearing out their hair over the fate of the Stratford Festival Theater, whose redevelopment hit a brick wall a year ago in the form of vanishing private investment.
No one doubts that re-opening the 1,500-seat playhouse, dark since 1989, would provide a significant psychological and economic boost to a town of 50,000 struggling to maintain an identity. But when a non-profit group spearheading the project ran out of money a few million dollars short of completing the refurbishing, the project screeched to a halt and the state reclaimed ownership of the site.
Re-opening the former Shakespeare theater would go far toward accomplishing that objective. There's just one problem: The private investment community thinks it's a lousy idea.
And because private investors are not stupid, lousy ideas don't get financed, usually. The same cannot be said of the public sector, and now Stratford officials are attempting to get ownership of the theater in order to finish the project, probably at taxpayer expense.
Whether one appreciates the Bard or not, this is a surpassingly stupid idea. If the venture-capital community thinks the SFT is a loser, what special knowledge do the Stratford solons have to conclude otherwise?
Our guess is: not much.
The best thing Stratford residents and business people can do if they wish a return to the glory days is to keep town officials' mitts off this tarnished jewel and continue to look for a responsible investor to complete the project - and to do it right.
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