Glenn Pontier, director of communications for The Gerry Foundation, indicates that the foundation will also be proposing additional development for the 634.7-acre site, besides the Pavilion component of its plan. He notes that the foundation will not release project specifics until it meets with the Bethel agencies on June 12. The foundation also owns approximately 700 acres nearby the site. However, the Gerry Foundation has no development plans for that property at this time, officials with the foundation note.
Alan Gerry, a cable television pioneer who headed Cablevision Industries, which he sold five years ago to Time Warner, founded the foundation. It is seeking regulatory approval for the creation of a Performing Arts District for the site.
The Gerry Foundation will be making a presentation to a joint session of the Bethel Town Board and Bethel Planning Board. The Gerry Foundation, based in Liberty, made its first presentation to the two Bethel agencies on May 8. The Town Board and Planning Board are seeking to become lead agencies for the project, which requires zoning and environmental approvals.
He adds that Gerry has told local business officials that the Performing Arts Pavilion project is fully funded. New York State has committed $15 million in state grant funding for the venture.
Pontier says that Gerry is committed to developing the Performing Arts Center in order to foster economic development activity in Sullivan County. However, he stresses that the proposal is completely unrelated to the various Indian gaming proposals that have dominated the news in the area.
He notes that the Performing Arts Center would help bring back the heritage of fine entertainment that Sullivan County was known for since the 1940s when famous comedians such as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis played the Catskill "Borscht Belt" hotel circuit. Pontier notes that the Performing Arts Center would not cater to just rock groups and would not be a venue that would seek to be a mega-concert locale.
He notes that the foundation is holding discussions with the New York Philharmonic to play at the Pavilion once it is completed. He says that the facility would be fashioned after the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Tanglewood.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
