Mountain Laurel music center is clear of debt

New season will be announced in weeks

By TOM KANE

BUSHKILL, PA — The Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts (MLCPA) has been freed from its debt of over $20 million and will announce its new season in a few weeks.

The music center, with its renowned Tom Ridge Pavilion, had to close for a year after a poor initial start of its first summer season. After recovering with another season a year later, the center then lacked the funds to pay the first installment of a bond. This problem, it seems, has been solved with the emergence of a new patron, John Wolfington, with a development plan.

“A whole lot of people worked very hard and very collaboratively to come up with a way to get another chance to do it,” said Richard Bryant, CEO of the center.

At the heart of the solution is the work and the money put forward by developer and philanthropist Wolfington who hails from the Philadelphia area.

The announcement of the debt resolution was made by Andrew Forte, Chairman of the Mountain Laurel Development Group (MLDG).

“Under the terms of a ground lease agreement, Mountain Laurel’s 2,500-seat Tom Ridge Pavilion will become the centerpiece of a master planned mixed-use residential/commercial community that MLDG will build on 2,225 acres. It will include the existing Tamiment subdivision and most of the old Unity House Resort on Bushkill Falls Road in Bushkill, the original owner of the property,” Forte said.

In exchange for payment of the bond, and other considerations, the Pike County Commercial and Industrial Development Authority with the concurrence of Pike County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, transferred ownership of the property to MLDG, which in turn has leased the performing arts center facility back to the Mountain Laurel Center.

“There is very real work ahead, but we are no longer hampered by this debt,” Bryant said.