A community theater is caught in the crosshairs of West Pikeland Township’s hope to sell the municipal building it calls home — just about a year after the performing arts company completed nearly half a million dollars’ worth of renovations there.
The West Pikeland Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Monday to put the building, at 1645 Art School Rd. in Chester Springs, up for bid. Board members cast their votes before a packed house had an opportunity to speak in support of SALT Performing Arts, the hub that has been based at the township building for 12 years. The group shares the space with township administrative offices.
But after roughly an hour of public comment decrying the decision, board member Bryan Maher sought to require that the buyer honor the license agreement as a condition of the bid — something the township originally was going to make optional. The board could not make that change at Monday’s meeting, after already voting to put the building up for bid, but may reconvene Thursday to discuss adding such a condition. Officials said the date and time will be published online.
“That is the best we can do according to the regulations, the lovely second-class township code that we all have to abide by,” the township manager, Joan Blatcher, told attendees Monday.
Lauren McComas, SALT’s president and artistic director, said Tuesday that the group was feeling hopeful.
“But it’s still unfolding and nothing is certain,” she added.
The proposed sale comes just more than a year after SALT put together about $400,000 to pay for necessary safety improvements and renovations in the space, striking an agreement with the township to foot the bill if the organization could license the space for 10 years at a fixed cost.
The township wants to sell the property for at least $2 million to offset the cost of purchasing a new facility to house its police force, which the community pushed to save several years ago when the municipality considered disbanding it and using the state police instead.
“We knew we were rolling the dice in raising almost half a million dollars and investing it into a property that we did not own, but we trusted the township and this good-faith deal we made with each other,” McComas said.
Speaking to attendees at the meeting, captured in footage on a resident’s unofficial YouTube channel, Maher said the sale of the building was necessary to ensure the township could renovate the new building at 1001 Kimberton Rd. and get the police force accredited. But he did not want to lose SALT in the process, calling on the theater and Historic Yellow Springs, a community organization and the building’s previous owner, to work something out.
“It’s not just about how much money can we squeeze out of this building so we can build new extra bits and bobs over at the new one,” he said. “That’s not my priority here. My priority here is that the community is built through the purchase of the new building and the reinforcement of what’s here — that’s SALT. That’s not this building.”
His comments drew a standing ovation.
The township purchased the property in 2005 from Historic Yellow Springs, an organization dedicated to the history and preservation of the village.
There are two buildings on the property; West Pikeland’s police are in the smaller single-story building, while the township administrative offices, a meeting room, and SALT share the larger building, Blatcher said.
SALT started its theater company in the space in 2014, McComas said.
In the more than a decade since, it has produced 90 main-stage productions, and had more than 14,000 children perform on stage through educational arts programs, she said. SALT has community partnerships with Acting Antics, an all-abilities theater group; the Chester County Food Bank; the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County; and the VFW, busing unhoused veterans to the facility for private shows during the holidays and providing them with hot meals and necessities.
In 2023, township officials told SALT leaders that a brick wall and skylight were becoming a liability and needed to be replaced. SALT offered to raise money for the renovations, along with other improvements to the space, in exchange for a 10-year license agreement at a fixed rent. The township agreed, McComas said.
SALT fundraised for two years and completed the project in September 2025, McComas said.
Earlier this year, the township approached SALT about its intention to sell the building. While officials gave SALT right of first refusal for the purchase, as specified in the agreement, it was too steep a cost after pouring so much into the renovations, McComas said. The theater also took out a $200,000 construction loan as part of the $400,000 effort, guaranteed by McComas herself, to complete the work, reassured by the 10-year commitment.
They entered the agreement in May 2023, and it became effective Jan. 1, 2024, Blatcher said.
“This is our home and this is our hub. And if they did not honor our license agreement and kicked us out, SALT would be done,” McComas said. “All that we just built for the last 12 years with sweat and tears and blood and passion would just be done.”
Blatcher said the township had not planned to sell the building when it entered the agreement. But because the building is a part of the Historic Yellow Springs Village and on the historic register, she said, “there are limitations to how that can be done” to accommodate a larger police squad and meet the requirements of accreditation.
Ahead of a possible reconsideration later this week, Blatcher said, the licensing agreement with SALT is included in the bid packet for potential purchasers. Bidders are instructed to advise the township if they would assume the terms, or prefer the township terminate it “as permitted in the current agreement with 30 days notice.”
“I am not aware of a single person on the staff or Supervisors of the Township who want SALT to have to relocate,” Blatcher wrote in an email. “The township has done what it can to provide SALT with as much time as it could to get funding or enter into a partnership or agreement with HYS to retain the building. The supervisors have obligations to the residents of the township that go beyond fostering the exceptional community built by SALT.”
McComas said leaders tried to limit how many people came out Monday to speak on SALT’s behalf, but the evening saw impassioned pleas from staff members, donors, community partners, and more.
“We’re not asking for anything for free. We’re not even asking you to invest in the arts,” said Rob Merow, vice president and technical director of SALT. “We’re simply asking you to not double dip on the recent investment that SALT’s donors made and afford us the privilege of maintaining excellence in arts and kindness within West Pikeland Township.”
Valerie Dixon said she started as a ticket-buyer before she became involved as a choreographer for the performing arts center. She condemned the township’s decision to sell the property without honoring the license.
“That little bait-and-switch felt like a huge slap in the face,” she said. “Not just to me, as a donor and a ticket-buyer and a staff member of this organization and an educator to thousands of kids who come in through our doors here, but also as a community resident. Slap in the face.”
McComas’ 15-year-old daughter, Eloise, choked up as she spoke to the board.
“SALT is my second home. I grew up here. My brothers grew up here,” she said. “I just really hope that you will choose to not just do what is legal, but also do what is morally right.”
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