Historic Goldin Furniture building in Greenport back on the market

This is not how real estate normally sells in Greenport. 

Yet there’s nothing normal about Goldin Furniture, the historic 1894 Queen Anne-style building at the corner of Central Avenue and Main Street — which began as the Greenport Auditorium, the village’s turn-of-the-century center of cultural entertainment, and stayed open for 44 years. 

“Everything is on the table,” said real estate agent Bridget Elkin. “I think this building is going to require compromise from all parties. The seller has to remain open to purchase options, as does the buyer. The renovations are going to be complex and costly.” 

Yet its place in the steadily vanishing history of 19th- and early 20th-century Greenport architecture is significant. 

“There’s a lot of amazing history in this building,” she said. 

The building is listed for sale at $3.5 million, Ms. Elkin said.

With etchings on the interior walls from 1894 and collections of old theater tickets from before the 1938 hurricane, the building’s interior hearkens back to a different time.

When local leader and suffragette Sarah Adams had the original theater built, it could hold as many as 700 visitors. The 1938 hurricane damaged the building, whose interior was designed by architect George Frick. The building was constructed by builder Charles Corwin. It remained dormant for several years after the hurricane, before becoming a furniture store. 

“Everyone’s in agreement that we’ve lost a lot of [historic] buildings like this on Main Street,” Ms. Elkin said, “and we can’t afford to lose this one.” 

Ms. Elkin, who said she has been studying various potential grant opportunities that could support a nonprofit purchase and renovations, said property owner Andrew Aurichio “very much wants” to sell to a nonprofit, a private benefactor or even the village itself. 

“He sees the importance of this building being part of the fabric of the community … I think just the way he is coming into this — with open eyes — it’ll be important for a buyer to do the same.” 

Approached inside his store for an interview last week, Mr. Aurichio declined. 

Ms. Elkin said that even with a benefactor or a nonprofit, the village would have to be willing to work with the new owner or owners. 

“I think the village and the purchaser will have to meet him in the same step, if we are going to save this building.” 

Specifically, she said, village officials would need to offer relief from the building’s current nonconforming use status and potential parking requirements, as well as possibly contributing taxpayer money. 

She also said that any new owner would be wise to include a food and drink component in any business plan.

“Tourism is the No. 1 income generator in Greenport … Anyone looking to renovate this building will need income from that type of business.”

Ms. Elkin said she is “optimistic that the village is going to work with the purchaser of this building, as long as [buyers] are willing to restore this in a responsible way and keep the theater element alive.”

She was right about the village’s support.

“Not just I, but the Village Board would be enormously supportive of somebody coming in and utilizing it as a wonderful addition to the arts and theater scene and the community,” Mayor Kevin Stuessi said in a subsequent interview. “And I think there is plenty of room for them and the North Fork Arts Center to both do events, films in the village … You look at how little there is on the North Fork in the way of venues like that, compared to the South Fork. 

“The village of Sag Harbor alone has [multiple cultural] venues that have sort of a similar nature,” he said, including the Bay Street Theater, the Sag Harbor Cinema and The Church arts center. 

“So we will have one soon with the North Fork Arts Center, and it’d be great to see the Greenport auditorium reopened as well.”

Longtime village trustee and deputy mayor Mary Bess Phillips agreed that finding a patron to invest in the building and, by extension, downtown Greenport, will be an uphill climb, but well worth it. She said the project would also likely need a key point person with experience in historic building renovations. 

“You have to have somebody who is a true project person that will be able to take it on and deal with the challenges and network,” she said. “It’s going to take a very special person, and we can all dream about it, but I think if it ever gets up and running, it would be a great, great thing — a great asset to the downtown business district.” 

Ms. Elkin said she’s confident that money can be found to buy and renovate the old auditorium. “There’s this notion that people are weary of nonprofits, after all the work on the [Greenport] theater. I disagree. I think there’s a lot more donatable resources to be had if the right project is proposed. There’s more money out there.”