The future site of Pendragon Theatre on the corner of Woodruff and Church streets is seen Tuesday as construction on the former supermarket building begins. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Construction has officially started on the new home for Pendragon Theatre, and as parking increases and spots decrease in the Woodruff Street area, the village has added nine new parking spots along the short street.

The theater’s general contractor — Malta-based MLB Construction Services — fenced off the parking lot on the corner of Church and Woodruff streets on Monday and began tearing out all the old stuff from the inside on Tuesday — carting it away in large dump trucks.

Right now, the building looks in rough shape because it’s been abandoned for many years. But conceptual designs show the expanded structure will get dressed up.

Pendragon Theatre’s home has been on Brandy Brook Avenue for most of its four-and-a-half decade lifespan. The theater is set up to move to the former A&P Supermarket.

Pendragon spokesperson Jess Collier said the theater board is “super pumped” about the work starting. The move has been in the works for years. They held a groundbreaking ceremony in July and around 100 people attended, including state representatives, but construction is just starting now.

Collier said they are currently planning to open the theater in April 2026.

The parking lot close to the building will be dug out first. It was the site of a sawmill back in the day, and soil tests show the ground is not sound enough to hold the addition for the front of the theater — it is not load-bearing.

So they are going to have to dig out the dirt, remove the buried sawdust and sand and replace the soil before laying the foundation. Collier expects the digging to start later this week, with the foundation finished before the new year, as long as the ground doesn’t freeze early.

In the meantime, there’s lots of work to be done inside the existing structure through the winter, including asbestos removal. The structural work will start in spring.

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Parking

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The lot has long been used as overflow parking for businesses in that area, namely Nori’s Village Market across the street. But now, the lot is a construction zone, and after it’s finished, it won’t be an open parking lot.

The village recently painted nine new parking spots on Woodruff Street, along the side of the road next to the theater. This area of town is already seeing a major increase in parking after the opening of the RiverTrail Beer Works brewery.

The brewery has a 40-space lot on the side, between it and the Trestle Street music space, as well as a lease agreement for around 30 more in the laundromat parking lot across the street.

“We understand that people are going to be concerned about it,” Collier said. “But we think that creating a theater space is going to contribute a lot to the community.”

Village Community Development Director Katrina Glynn said the village is keeping an eye on parking in that part of town.

A potential need for additional parking is yet to be seen, she said. The village does not want to add parking without seeing a need because it uses a lot of room and are not attractive to village planners.

Glynn said there are several public lots and street parking marked in the area.

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Funding

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The campaign was stalled for several years during the coronavirus pandemic, when construction costs rose sharply.

This project kicked off with a $2.5 million share of the nearly $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the village got in 2018. The theater was the largest private recipient of the total grant.

The project also received $2 million in a Restore New York Communities Initiative grant last year.

Jess Collier said they have raised more than $8 million in public and private donations. The theater is still taking donations.

The Pendragon: The Next Stage for Downtown fundraising campaign can be found at pendragontheatre.org/donate.