Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

WESTERLY, R.I. -- The Westerly Land Trust, a nonprofit group devoted to open space preservation, announced it will invest roughly $5 million to $7 million to refurbish the historic United Theater and adjacent former Montgomery Ward building into a multipurpose arts complex.

The trust made its announcement today, unveiling its plans to their membership, local business owners and town officials, at their headquarters on High Street.

The renovation is the first of many downtown revitalization projects the land trust plans to embark upon, since recently acquiring seven commercial properties in the downtown area, with funding assistance from the Royce Family Fund Foundation of Connecticut.

The land trust, in the conservation business for 22 years, is hoping to spur economic activity in town as a way to preserve the land, which members say complements its historical mission, Harvey Perry, president of the trust's board of directors, said.

"If we can make the downtown more fun, more exciting more convenient and attractive, and more densely populated, it will diminish the development pressure of the outlying area that really needs to be protected," Perry said.

"It's good for the town if there's less development on the outside and more development where we have more infrastructure. We don't know any other land trust doing this."

 Tags  Westerly RI

Leave a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.