Julienne Penza-Boone, who runs the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, has explained the economics of a small theater in one sentence that ought to be printed on the wall of every arts board on Long Island.

"We pay the artist what they charge, whether they're playing 5,000 seats or 425 seats."

That is the whole problem, and it is the reason the PAC is about to get bigger.

The arithmetic of 425 seats

A touring act does not discount its fee because the room is small. The fee is the fee. What changes is how many tickets you have to sell it against.

Westhampton Beach has been selling out consistently and is financially healthy, which sounds like a reason not to change anything. It is actually the opposite. A theater that sells out at 425 seats has hit its ceiling, and the only way past a ceiling is to raise it.

The expansion adds more than 100 seats to the main house. It also adds a sunken dance floor that holds 154 standing or roughly 50 seated, first-floor bathrooms, a larger stage with real backstage and side wings, and a bar and lounge on the third floor.

The side wings matter more than they sound. A stage without wings limits what you can book, because a production that needs to move scenery has nowhere to move it to. Adding them changes the category of show the village can host.

Where it goes

The new construction sits on land the PAC bought in 2008, behind the theater.

The property has a Westhampton Beach history of its own. It was the longtime home of Ria Del Bene, and before that her father ran a barber shop on the site. Those rooms currently serve as the theater's classroom and catering spaces.

The architect is John David Rose Architect of Southampton, with John Rose and Scott Rose as principals.

The money

In early June, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a $6 million state award toward the expansion.

That sits alongside $4 million the PAC received in 2025 from the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund, though it is worth being precise about that second number: CPF money is designated for historic preservation, not for the expansion. The two pots do different jobs.

A total project cost has not been set.

The mayor's two questions

PAC officials presented the plan at the village board's May 20 work session. Mayor Ralph Urban was supportive and then named the two things that have to be solved, both of which are the sort of unglamorous constraint that decides whether a project like this actually happens.

The first is parking. Westhampton Beach in July does not have spare capacity, and a theater that seats 100 more people needs somewhere to put their cars on exactly the weekends when there is nowhere to put anything.

The second is sewer flow. A bigger building with more bathrooms and a third-floor bar generates more wastewater, and the village's capacity is a conversation with Suffolk County rather than something the board can grant on its own.

Neither is a reason the project fails. Both are the reason it takes a while.

The timeline

If the approvals land, ground could break this fall. The target for completion is July 2028, which is not an arbitrary date: it is the theater's 30th anniversary.

Why this is a village story and not just an arts story

Main Street in Westhampton Beach was recently reimagined, and Citarella opened its fourth East End location in the village. A performing arts center that can book bigger acts is the third leg of the same structure.

An off-season Long Island downtown lives or dies on whether it has a reason to bring people in on a Tuesday in February. Restaurants cannot generate that reason on their own. A theater can, and a theater with wings and 525 seats can do it with acts that currently skip the village entirely for Patchogue or Huntington.

The parking and the sewer are the price of that, and they are the sort of thing a village argues about for two years. It is usually worth it.