Oak Bluffs is in pursuit of a concrete plan for the Island Theatre.
The select board announced at Tuesday’s meeting that it is seeking members for a new committee to think up possible uses for the property, which residents voted to purchase or take by eminent domain earlier this year.
Voters gave the town their blessing to borrow up to $5 million for the historic building that has sat vacant at the top of Circuit avenue since 2012. It was previously declared a safety hazard and is showing signs of disrepair.
Legally, a town can only take a property by eminent domain if it can prove there is a public use for that property. Finding a public use for the Island Theatre has been a topic of public select board discussion since February, when the board first floated the possibility of taking the building by eminent domain.
Identifying public uses for the theatre would be a key aspect of the committee’s work, according to the board. Select board chair Dion Alley suggested that voters may be able to weigh in on the ideas the committee generates at fall town meeting.
“We can do a non-binding vote, get what people are interested in,” Mr. Alley said. “It starts to point us and narrow it down … then we can pursue from there.”
Select board member Mark Leonard, who chairs the town’s new economic development council, said that outside consulting on what to do with the historic theatre could be rolled into the council’s forthcoming five-year development plan.
“Maybe part of that contract could be to look at that space and do a market analysis to see what the downtown area needs,” he said.
Island Theatre owners Ben Hall Jr. and Brian Hall have pushed back on the town’s desire to seize the property, maintaining that the building is structurally sound and that they’ve had trouble selling it due to municipal wastewater constraints. They urged the select board to strike the item from the town meeting warrant at meetings earlier this year, and they appeared at town meeting to ask voters to reject the proposition.
While Ben Hall Jr. previously suggested he would be willing to sell the property to the town outright, he later said he would prefer to sell it to a private buyer. The asking price for the property was $2.8 million as of this spring.
This article appears in July 17, 2026.
Having supported the town’s decision to act after more than a decade of vacancy and deterioration, I am glad Oak Bluffs is now addressing the most important question: What public use will actually work in this space?
I hope the committee does not limit itself to restoring the building solely as a traditional movie theatre. A flexible community arts and entertainment center could show films while also accommodating live music, theatrical productions, lectures, children’s programs, public forums and other year-round events. That would preserve the Island Theatre’s historic identity while giving it a broader purpose and serving more of the community.
A market analysis is sensible, but public input should come before the town commits itself to one narrow concept. Any proposal must also be realistic about renovation costs, ongoing operating expenses and the wastewater limitations that have complicated the property for years.
The worst outcome would be for the town to spend millions acquiring the Island Theatre only to have it remain vacant while another lengthy debate unfolds. The committee should move carefully—but it should also move with purpose.
Oak Bluffs has waited long enough; now it needs a realistic plan that will finally bring this landmark back to life.
Exactly what the Strand is doing across the intersection. This theater needs to be unique, not competition.
That’s a fair point, Laura. The committee’s challenge is even greater because the Strand is already providing many of those programs. The Island Theatre should complement what’s already available, not duplicate it. The real question is: what is the community’s most significant unmet public need?
I would like to see it used as a movie theater again! With a difference…
I would like to see the theater play only classic old movies.
What a treat it would be, and also something that would be appropriate for the whole family, to be able to watch the old classics on the big screen!
The matinees could, for example, be old Disney films for the children.
And in the evenings in of the classics.
I don’t care for the new films, for the most part. But I would be there regularly.
The reason it closed is few people go to the movies now. What you’re fantasizing over makes zero economic sense. Having one or two dozen people sitting in front of a screen in February? No one will build that. Time to tear it down and start fresh.
I agree nobody goes to the movies anymore…
My vote is Affordable Housing. Makes sense close to public transportation. Why put them in the woods up island??
Put up a 5 story parking garage in a gingerbread style hotel tower with a pent house at the top that is leased, to ensure maintenance. Have three small apartments in the structure for affordable elderly housing. Parking is the top economic stimulus for circuit avenue. 25 more parking spots in town.
I vote to make a park- open space!
Post office! Why do we need to depend on a Vineyard Haven Post office for mail delivery to so many Oak Bluff properties.? We tried to rethink the Post office location years ago. This would benefit many Oak Bluffs residents. Federal government assistance could help for the cost. Post office would still be in business district one of the hurdles the last discussion faced.
I’m thinking a shared usage space.A more comprehensive visitors center. Pay to rent lockers of all sizes for tourists and residents to use while traveling.Stage for theater productions,movies. Open space to rent for parties, lectures, craft shows and classes. We really need an affordable indoor space to go when the weather is bad to allow children to play and run!!
And including a “nice” public bathroom would be a plus.
I suggest it before I say an outdoor theater under the sky’s with food and drink. I’ll forgive the non existing roof .
What we need is a NICE single stage event venue. Concerts, comedy shows, guest speakers, etc.
Nantucket is able to have a VERY impressive lineup of concerts and comedians because they have a venue for it. We could use this property to built that asset for the town and island as a whole. Currently, things like that are thrown wherever they can fit (high school, Ag Hall, Loft, etc.) and none of them are really designed for it, we just make them work…so having one specifically built for the use would be great.