HAMDEN — The Outer Space and adjacent Ballroom at The Outer Space are back open after a few weeks of darkness, rechristened the Space Ballroom by the venue’s new owners, the same people behind the College Street Music Hall.
And new life also is on the horizon for what until last month was The Space, the recently closed all-ages venue located in the same Treadwell Business Park at 295 Treadwell St. Two New Haven high school teachers, Karen Robinson and Chris Scionti, have negotiated a lease for that building, which they expect to sign later this week.
Scionti and Robinson bought The Outer Space’s kitchen equipment and some of its memorabilia from Steve Rodgers, former owner of all three venues, and plan to open this spring as The Rough Draft, said Robinson, who was a waitress at The Outer Space.
The Rough Draft also will present music as well as serve food and will offer a full bar — and will be open every day, Robinson said.
The Space Ballroom will be open only on nights that it presents a show.
The two venues are independent of one another, Robinson said.
“We just decided on the name today,” said Robinson, who also said The Rough Draft’s Facebook page just went up.
Robinson, who teaches at Hill Regional Career High School and Scionti, who teaches at New Haven’s Engineering and Science University Magnet School, which is located in West Haven, got approval by the Hamden Health Department Tuesday to begin setting up the new venue’s kitchen, she said.
They expect to have the building lease signed Thursday and are hoping to open by late April or early May, Robinson said.
While they will be located in the former Space, “we’re trying to keep as much as The Outer Space as we can,” Robinson said. “We’re keeping the stage, although it’s going to be in a different location. We’re counting on some of the old bands to play there.”
She said she expects The Rough Draft to be more locally focused than its neighbor. “We can’t compete with the guys across the way, so we’re not going to try,” she said.
Robinson and Scionti have been warmly greeted both by the Space/Outer Space community and the Hamden community as word has begun to spread, she said.
“The response even just to the rumors that we might be thinking about it was overwhelming,” she said.
“We’re very excited and look forward to being part of the community,” said Scionti.
The new Space Ballroom is run by Backstage Hamden LLC, whose management operates the bars at the College Street Music Hall. It will be booked by Manic Presents.
The announcement came by way of a press release from Premier Concerts, run by Keith Mahler; Manic Presents, booked by Mark Nussbaum, who also is senior talent buyer for Premier Concerts; and Backstage Bars.
Neither Mahler, who will run the Space Ballroom’s facilities, nor Nussbaum, who will book it — in addition to booking the College Street Music Hall and some shows at Cafe Nine — returned repeated calls for comment over two days.
Nussbaum, who booked shows at The Outer Space for five years, told the New Haven Independent that when former own Steve Rodgers decided to close, “We didn’t want to see it go away.”
The Independent reported that Nussbaum and Mahler have signed a lease on the building that housed the Outer Space and the ballroom on Treadwell Street in Hamden, which plans to formally reopoen on Feb. 2.
The Space Ballroom held a “soft opening” this past weekend, with Goodnight Moonshine, the Let Loose and Roosevelt Dime on Friday and a Deerhoof on Saturday. The Feb. 2 show will feature Model Decoy, Long Time, Paul Bryant Hudson and Phat A$tronaut.
The developments are good news for area music fans, many of whom had strong connections to the Space/Outer Space/Ballroom.
Many music aficionados , who in some cases had grown up on The Space, felt it deeply late last month when founder/owner Steve Rodgers and his wife, Jesse Rodgers, announced in a Facebook post that The Space, Steve Rodgers’ original, all-ages venue, would close and that shows would “transition” to The Outer Space and Ballroom.
“As a family we are transitioning to a new phase of life, as our children get older and our family focus deepens, we are choosing a new path,” the Rodgers’ said. “The Space will have its last show Friday, December 22nd. Please continue to support The Outer Space as shows are transitioned over-there and most importantly, support local music.”
As The Ballroom and The Outer Space canceled a number of shows near the end of December and in the early days of January, it became clear that those venues also were closing, at least temporarily.
Steve Rodgers could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dale Kroop, Hamden’s director of economic development and neighborhood revitalization, said he was pleased to see the venue reopen.
“We heard about this and I’m very pleased,” said Kroop, who was not involved in the deal.
Before Rogers made the decision to close, the town had “been working with Steve on where he was going to go. We have a very active program for the creative industries,” he said.
Kroop pointed out that “that industrial park is located right next to a new development, called “Canal Crossing” and “there’s going to be 1,000 new people living there soon ... So this is part of a bigger narrative.”