White Heron Theatre Sold For $9.5 Million To New Performing Arts Nonprofit Group

The White Heron Theatre in downtown Nantucket was sold Friday morning for $9.5 million to the Nantucket Performing Arts Center, Inc., a group led by former White Heron Theatre board members including summer resident and 'Sconset homeowner Chris Bierly.

The custom-built 150-seat performing arts venue on North Water Street, which opened in 2015, was put up for sale last June by White Heron Theatre founders Lynne and Roger Bolton. It was initially listed for $13 million.

“We look forward to developing the Nantucket Performing Arts Center as a home for Nantucket’s rich arts scene," Bierly said in a statement. "We aspire to be a great partner to island arts and cultural organizations, to develop and stage high quality theatrical productions, and to be a hub of creativity and connection for generations to come.”

Bierly, a partner and director at Bain & Company in Boston, serves as president of the new ownership group, the Nantucket Performing Arts Center. In addition to Bierly, the group's leadership includes former White Heron Theatre board chairs and island summer residents James Malone III and Bob Doran.

"A coalition of Nantucket-based artists, community leaders, and supporters has come together to save this irreplaceable venue and establish NPAC as a year-round performing arts center," the group said in its announcement released Friday afternoon. "NPAC’s mission is to honor Nantucket’s long and rich theatrical history while offering a launchpad for new works, fostering educational opportunities, and serving as a cultural partner to the island’s many arts organizations."

The NPAC's Artistic Advisory Board includes the following individuals: Celia Keenan-Bolger, Carolyn Cantor, Amanda Charlton, John Ellison Conlee, Eliud Garcia Kauffman, Nina Hellman, Nicholas Hussong, Judith Ivey, Keira Naughton, Mary Seidel, Jeremy Shamos, Mark Shanahan and Louisa Thompson. The group described them as "acclaimed performing artists, directors, and designers with deep ties to Nantucket."

The property at 5 North Water Street had been owned by the Boltons since December 2012, when they acquired the lot from the late Flint Ranney for $2.5 million. The White Heron Theatre Company was operated as a non-profit organization separate from Nantucket Theatre Project, the limited liability company that owns the property. Both are controlled by the Boltons.

Since 2012, when the theater company relocated to Nantucket from New York, it has been run by Lynne Bolton along with producing director and co-artistic director Michael Kopko. The pair met after Bolton directed Kopko's daughter in a local production years ago.

"We are very proud of what we created from our own imagination, passion and very hard work," Lynne Bolton told the Current on Friday. "The beautiful building we built in downtown Nantucket is the result of that vision. It is time for us to retire from running a performance venue and all of the work that that entails, but my hope for the future is that the new buyers will be able to continue providing an arts venue for the community in the historic downtown district and we wish them success."

Bolton emphasized that it was the theatre property that was sold, not the White Heron Theatre Company, which remains intact as a non-profit organization and may engage in other theatre production work in the future.

The property, which was originally listed by Lee Real Estate for $12.9 million, includes the 7,186 square-foot theatre, along with a 1,315 square-foot single-family home that White Heron had used for housing for its production staff.

Originally founded in New York City in 2004 by Bolton and Yale School of Drama acting dean Earle Gister, White Heron Theatre Company was "reborn" on Nantucket in 2012 following the Boltons' acquisition of the downtown property. For two summers, the theatre company hosted performances under a large, temporary tent at the site while the venue was under construction. Three years later, the $7 million facility was opened as "the first purpose-built venue on the island dedicated to professional repertory theater.

This is a developing story and will be updated.