By GREGORY ZELLER //
An aging Southold structure with a long and winding backstory has once again found new life – this time, as home base for a service-focused nonprofit with its own storied history.
Greenport-based Community Action Southold Town – which has provided underserved local populations with food, shelter, education, employment and healthcare services since 1965 – has closed on the purchase of the former Southold Opera House, which is also the former Southold Methodist Church, on Main Road in the Hamlet of Southold. The nonprofit announced its plans to buy the building earlier this year.
Currently based in an unassuming structure on Front Street in Greenport, the volunteer-driven CAST funded its big-time real estate deal – including the 19th Century church and its parsonage – through an ambitious fundraising effort. The registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization has raised $2.2 million through its years-long, $3 million Build What Matters Capital Campaign, which has been generously supported by private donations and was significantly boosted by a $300,000 grant issued in December 2019 by the Empire State Economic Development Fund.
With CAST hoping to finally finish off its $3 million fundraiser in 2022, its $2.2 million pot was close enough to the reported $2.8 million sale price to land the former church, which in 2016 was purchased for a reported $1 million by opera singer Anne-Julia Audray and her husband, Oliver Chazereix.
Cathy Demeroto: Opening doors.
The couple planned to convert the structure into an opera house and music school. The opera house actually opened in 2017, but its fate was ultimately sealed by the live-performance-crushing COVID pandemic, and the music school never came to fruition.
Thanks to CAST’s capital campaign, the former church has once again been re-tasked with a noble purpose – “a dream realized,” according to CAST Board President Marc Sokol.
“We are so grateful for the generous support from the members of the community, who dedicate their time and resources every day to make our community a better place to live,” Sokol said.
With the deal done, CAST is envisioning a thriving community resource center for its constituents. According to the organization, nearly 10 percent of the Town of Southold population lives below the poverty line.
On the drawing board are a larger “client-choice” food pantry, a “teaching kitchen,” a “sharing room” for donated clothing and household items, a community garden and new spaces for youth- and adult-education programs, all focused on the nonprofit’s primary clientele: seniors, single mothers, veterans, people living with disabilities and the working poor, among others.
“We look forward to welcoming all of our neighbors and friends into our new home, with hopes that it will truly be a meeting place and resource center for the entire community,” CAST Executive Director Cathy Demeroto said in a statement. “Whether people come for services, to volunteer, take a class or enjoy a musical performance, our doors will always be open to all.”
