total time: 4.9 minutes
total words: 857
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you everybody for coming here today. We are so elated and excited to be welcoming Bill Blumenreich to this beautiful theater. This really is a proud day for the city of Medford and just a little history of this building. It was built in 1939. It's named for the remarkable World War I veteran. Godfrey Chevalier, so we know that that name stands proudly and represents all of us as Americans. This theater has hosted John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, and Leroy, so we have some high expectations for this. We're so very excited to be partnering with you to allow this theater to live up to its expectations, to have a grand flagship of Medford Square, and a critical component and a catalyst for the Medford Square Revitalization. So we are very, very thrilled to have them on the board. I need to acknowledge some of the members of the committee that worked on this process. As we all know, we did the second RFP back last spring. And we put together a team, a highly qualified team, to make sure that this was a positive experience and a positive result in the end. Leading it off is Mark Rumley, our city solicitor. commission members that worked very hard each and every step of the way to make sure that this RFP was what we needed and what we wanted for the city of Medford. With us today is John Costas, the chair of the Chivalry Commission. Mike Oliver is not present today, but he also worked very hard on this. He would have been the third commission member on this committee that we put together. We're also lucky to have in attendance today City Council President Rick Caraviello, spent on this RFP. And Paul Solano, I'm a commission member as well, so thank you Paul. Countless hours were spent on this RFP and I know by the faces in this room that many of you haven't heard those countless hours right down to pretty much this morning. So we're just really thrilled that we were able to pull it all together. And my deepest thanks go out for a job well done by all involved. I further want to thank the endless devotion of past members of the Chevalier Commission that began in 1981, and friends of the Chevalier, especially Geraldine Brandy, who put her heart and soul into this building, and she made it a beautiful gem for this city. And I know she's looking down on us, too, so very, very proudly today. So a thank you to our friend Geraldine upstairs. We have a few of the friends here today. We have Nate Mockerbrack, we have Cindy Watson, and we also have Russ that also worked very hard to make sure that this place stayed up. I think it was blood, sweat, and tears for a lot of you, and we've seen it each and every day, and you've never let down. So thank you all for the hard work that you've done over the course of the tenure of this beautiful building. So now, the highlights of the agreement. The contract is comprised of four five-year terms. Bill Bloomberg will furnish to the City of Medford $1 for each ticket sold that will go into a restoration fund for the Chevalier Theatre. So the money that we've taken as a city is going to be reused again and again and again to make enhancements to this building. Hiring Medford residents is a priority, and up to 15 performances per year will be free for the City of Medford to have. So those are really great kudos, and thank you for allowing us to work back into the agreement that's at hand today, and we'll be signing shortly. And also, we all know that we have the Boys and Girls Clubs just below us. They will continue to have a home. So we are very proud that we were able to work through this agreement, continue to be able to allow the services that the Boys and Girls Club offer to our community, and for children in need. So we're just really thrilled that we were able to make this whole thing happen and blend it and work in harmony. So we're really thrilled. Now, I would like to just welcome Joan Costa up to say a few words on behalf of the commission.
[John Costas]: Where do we actually begin, you know? Back in the 80s when the city council made the vote to retain the theater, it was a big milestone for the community. It was unbelievable then. And now it's really unbelievable that we brought it to a position where it's attractive to someone as simple as a Nova theater. It's been one of the commission's goals for, you know, 35 years. I think I was 23 when I started. I'm so old now. But as the mayor mentioned about Joe D. Grandi, she was our first chairperson, and she was chairperson right up to the end. And if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be here right now. She was a real strong force. And the other long-time person I have to recognize is Dick Hoover. I mean, Dick Hoover, he went to school here when he did the first show here in 1940, The Wizard of Oz, and he stayed with it until he passed. But he was a fixture here, and I hope we'll never forget either one of these two members of the commission that, you know, well, we owe them a lot. I made a couple of little notes here. I said I'd be really brief. This will be the second biggest vote the Commission's ever, well actually the first biggest vote the Commission's ever had in allowing him to vote with the management company. And we have lots of faith. We know he's going to do well for the community. I already know that the business community is astounded by it. You know, I can almost see the number of restaurants moving in now as soon as they find out that the Lowe's here. And just thank you to the whole committee for doing a great job. Thank you to me and Bert for putting this whole thing together. And thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: has been out in the community over the past several months. So he's taken, he met with our friends group, so they could get to know them and their philosophy for the theater. He's met with business owners, he met with Square. So he's hit the ground running already. And without further ado, we want the man of the hour, the man of the Wilbur, the
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, everyone. You know, since I got involved in looking at this theater, I was so impressed with the commissioners who put all their time into it. What I meant was about three weeks ago with the friends of the Shibayu, when I met the mayor, and all the people on the staff at City Hall, and everyone was so into this theater that I'm really proud that you've taken the trust to have me book this place. Now, we say we're a management company. We're going to be buying out, so we're going to be taking a risk. We're not going to be renting it to a lot of other companies. We're going to be buying the axe ourselves. And the mayor mentioned Frank Sinatra. You know, Frank was still alive. He'll be coming here. You're going to see a lot of good axe here. You know, we have an offer out now. It's not confirmed yet. We're trying to get Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to come. First week in April, multiple shows. There's a comedian, Gabriel Iglesias, who won the play. TV Garden next February, and I just asked them instead of that to do six shows in three nights here for our official re-opening. So we have offers out to a lot of big acts, we're going to get a lot of them, and I really hope I can make everyone here proud.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: great relationship. We look forward to partnering with you, and you know that this city is behind you, and you're behind us. So we are a whole team, and we will make this happen. And I think at this point, we really need to find these contracts, and we can make
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost like a mortgage in my house. I never had any idea.
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total time: 4.9 minutes total words: 857 |
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