The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center Keeps Selling Out, and That Is Why It Wants to Grow

"Ticket-price resistance" is the phrase Julienne Penza-Boone, executive director of the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, used when she described what happens when the theater books top talent. The room at 76 Main Street holds 425 people. A performer's fee does not shrink to match. Penza-Boone has said that a smaller theater must charge more per ticket to cover what a performer costs.

That arithmetic explains the $25 million expansion the PAC brought to the Westhampton Beach Village Board on August 19. It also explains why the plan's calendar looks different from the one announced last spring.

A Full House Is the Ceiling

The PAC told the board this summer that ticket sales were up even as sales fell nationally. Many performances sold out, and some generated waiting lists. The theater still faces a structural limit, because performer fees have risen sharply since the pandemic and 425 seats is the only place to recover them. Penza-Boone also described a real difference in demand depending on the ticket price.

The plan is meant to spread the same fee across a larger audience. In her words, the theater wants to get back to presenting "really big marquee names in music, not just comedy." The PAC says the larger capacity would let it pursue larger touring acts and marquee musical performers that it currently cannot accommodate.

Penza-Boone has said the bottom line is a desire to lower ticket prices. A larger house is the mechanism. A ticket that costs less because more people share the fee is a different proposition from a ticket that costs less because the theater absorbed a loss.

What Gets Built Behind the 1932 Facade

The addition goes to the rear of the existing theater, on property the PAC has owned since 2008. That land was the longtime home of lifelong village resident Ria Del Bene. Her father ran a barber shop on the portion fronting Sunset Avenue, and that building now holds classroom and catering space.

The capacity range exists because the floor changes shape from one event to the next. An earlier presentation described that floor holding 154 people standing, or about 50 at tables. The same early plans included first-floor bathrooms and a third-floor bar and lounge. Coverage from Greater Long Island describes a rooftop reception area and new classrooms and rehearsal space as part of the project.

The architects, John and Scott Rose of John David Rose Architect in Southampton, told the board that the new portion would not imitate the historic front. John Rose said the front "has to, and will stay, just as it is." The design goal is a rear addition that sits comfortably beside a Colonial Revival theater without copying it.

The Money Comes in Three Separate Pieces

Three figures circulate around this project, and they do different jobs.

• $25 million is the campaign goal the PAC gave the Village Board in August, and the fundraising is continuing.
• $6 million is the state award Governor Kathy Hochul announced in early June, through the New York State Council on the Arts Capital Projects Fund. It was the second-largest of the 132 awards in that funding round.
• $4 million came to the PAC from the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund last year, and it is designated to protect the historic theater and its facade. The PAC has said it would not be used for the expansion.

The theater's facade easement with the town is now part of the review, since the Landmarks Board asked for a response from the Community Preservation Fund on it.

The Approval Path Runs Past Sunset Avenue

In May and again in June, the PAC said ground could break this fall, with a goal of finishing by the theater's 30th anniversary in July 2028. By the August 19 board meeting, the PAC was still preparing to enter the formal Village approval process. Because the resulting building would exceed the size the downtown zoning district allows, the expansion needs a special permit from the Village.

Public meeting summaries of the Landmarks Board's review describe what has slowed the process. In August, the board deemed the application incomplete and asked for professionally prepared visual simulations. A later summary says the board again deemed the application incomplete and asked for additional simulations, including night lighting. It also asked for a response from the Community Preservation Fund on the facade easement and for updates from the trustees and the planning board.

Those simulations matter because of what the drawings show. Board members said the proposed glass panels and an awning over a rooftop deck would likely be visible from Sunset Avenue and from the Main Street and Sunset Avenue intersection. The addition is behind the theater, yet it is not hidden from the street grid around it. The project would also require demolishing several adjoining buildings that are not landmarks and would create a parking area behind the block, according to those summaries.

The Landmarks Board's next meeting is listed for October 20, 2026. Until the reviews conclude, a fall groundbreaking has no approval behind it. Long Island Wave reported that Mayor Ralph Urban supported the concept and named parking and sewer capacity as the two questions to solve. A larger building generates more wastewater and asks more of a downtown that has little spare parking on its busiest weekends. That account comes from a single outlet.

What Changes on Main Street This Fall

Nothing about the theater's operation changes in the near term. The PAC has said construction will take place behind the building. It would not touch the historic marquee, and it would not interfere with the summer season. Anyone planning a fall night out at 76 Main Street can buy tickets directly at whbpac.org or by calling 631-288-1500. The PAC advises that buying direct is the only way to guarantee the best available seats for the best price.

The block around the theater has also gained an address this year. Westhampton Beach Brew & Grille took over the former Daphne's space at 115 Main Street, a second location for the Westhampton Beach Brewing team that also runs the Manorville restaurant. That is a change on the same street, and it follows the pattern the PAC describes when it says a theater feeds its downtown economy.

The open questions are about the calendar for the next two years. The dates that matter are the Landmarks Board meeting on October 20 and whatever the PAC files with the Village afterward. A special permit is the step that turns a $25 million plan into a construction schedule. Until then, the 425-seat house remains what sets the price of every ticket sold there.

Get on the VIP list at Stoebe & Co. Real Estate and we will send word as the Performing Arts Center's application reaches its next hearing.