Business View Civil and Municipal | May 2021

46 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MAY 2021 V I LLAGE OF PATCHOGUE , NEW YORK “The theatre operated as a movie triplex until 1986, then it was revived as the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts,” Kennedy specifies. “I’ve always felt that you could draw a direct line between Patchogue becoming a restaurant town and that theater’s reopening.” “We only had Chinese food and luncheonettes up until then,” jokes Village Trustee Lori Devlin. Today, the Village is also home to a spirited artists’ community – seamlessly integrated with Patchogue’s downtown and furthering the neighborhood’s progress as a beautiful, livable, all-around interesting place. “In the last 18 years, we’ve had better than $650 million in new construction downtown, of which $50 million came from grants,” says Mayor Paul Pontieri. “We’ve made it into a destination.” Under creative leadership and with the efforts of a volunteer-driven community of professionals, the downtown re-emerged from its retail slump as a cultural focal point for re-imagining Patchogue as a mixed-use, artist-initiated kind of place. On the pulse of that change was Artspace Projects Inc., that in 2011 unveiled the Artspace Patchogue Lofts – 45 units of affordable artist housing sitting on top of 2,500 square feet of arts-oriented commercial space. “It’s also given us that sense of adding to the theater,” Pontieri shares. “Now you have Artspace that has galleries, and houses the Patchogue Arts Council and has a small, 70-seat movie theater called the Plaza Cinema. It’s really changed the face of downtown Patchogue from a retail hub like we were in the ‘60s with JCPenney’s, Woolworth’s, W.T. Grant’s, McLellan’s… to a bonafide entertainment and theater district.” “The Arts Council has also driven a lot of activities that have brought artists to the community,” says Devlin. “That’s really enhanced the whole creative vibe we have now, that we Art Space Courtesy of Benny Miggs