North Shore Summer Season?

The historic North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass., has a new proprietor in a Rhode Island theatre owner who plans to reopen the venue this summer.

William Hanney reportedly got “a great price” on the 55-year-old North Shore, paying $3.6 million to Citizens Bank – the same price the bank paid for the theatre during a foreclosure auction last year.

He told the local Salem News the 1,537-capacity building, which was once an active summer concert venue, is still in excellent condition and he’s scrambling to stage a season this year.

“It’s 26 acres of land … with some terrific buildings on it,” he said. “You couldn’t build [a venue] for that amount of money. I keep telling people you could produce a show out of these production facilities and ship it to Broadway. It’s amazing.”

While the North Shore was previously managed by a nonprofit group, it will now reportedly run as a for-profit venture. Hanney plans to open the venue with minimal staff by early summer.