Trenton Heats Up - Central Jersey Archives

Urban Enterprise: Three Trenton residents have made their dream of a first-rate arts complex a reality

in the city.
By: Matt Smith

Urban entrepreneurs Roland Pott, David Henderson and John Hatch are revolutionizing arts and entertainment in downtown Trenton.

Staff photo by Frank Wojciechowski

   With just 176 hours to go before Conduit opened its doors, co-owners John Hatch, David Henderson and Roland Pott weren’t yet celebrating the fact that their dream of a first-rate nightclub and arts destination in Trenton was just seven-and-a-half days from becoming reality.
   As the three men talked around a table at the Urban Word Café last Thursday, just across a small brick courtyard from the soon-to-be-completed crown jewel of their self-contained entertainment district on South Broad Street, the cell phones and clipboards with ever-growing to-do lists were close at hand.
   Mr. Pott says he’s been putting in 100- to 120-hour weeks, and Messrs. Hatch and Henderson, both Trenton architects by day, have spent many a night and weekend making last-minute decisions, or on their hands and knees with a swatch of sandpaper.
   None of the partners seem to be able to duck away and hide for a moment. As Mr. Pott attempts to escape long enough to give a tour of the $2.5 million, 28,000-square-foot complex, he’s asked which fire-proof trash cans to order. When he steps off the elevator into the grand third-story Skyline Room, he’s enlisted by some construction workers in budging open a closet door.
   Luckily, 28-year-old Mr. Pott is someone "who enjoys being in the middle of things," so he’s not stressing that the club and its accompanying art studios, ballroom and retail shops spread over three buildings are scheduled to open in a few short days (see ‘Lofty Space’).
   It seems unlikely Mr. Pott and his partners will be able to do more than breathe a sigh of relief when the 500-plus-capacity venue opens for its first three events: a private party and ribbon cutting featuring Trenton’s Clifford Adams and Inner Flight on Thursday; the first public concert Sept. 28 with punk pioneer Graham Parker and Hopewell resident Chris Harford; and the inaugural Dance Night Sept. 29.

Music lovers will cover Conduit’s hardwood Sept. 28 for a Graham Parker concert and Sept. 29 for the inaugural Dance Night.

   Conduit was designed for precisely this reason to operate as a live stage-performance showroom and high-energy dance club. On Friday nights, the imposing DJ booth will serve as the soundboard for whatever rock, jazz or world music act is performing, and there might be chairs filling the floor. On Saturdays, resident DJ Davey Gold, an East Windsor native, will be busy manning the turntable and the hardwood hopefully filled with hundreds of hip, young club denizens.
   Before that can happen, there’s work to be done. The DJ booth needs a splash or two of paint. Mr. Pott points out the spots on the two bars where little light-shooting devices will be, and to where the ATM will be installed. Other than a few cosmetic issues, he’s sure Conduit will be 100 percent ready for opening night.
   IT’S BEEN A LONG JOURNEY to worrying about light-shooting devices and what trash cans to buy. Nearly two-and-a-half years have passed since the partners and their Trenton Makes, LLC, opened the Urban Word, the first private entertainment venture in the capitol city’s redevelopment, and more than five years since the three of them first schemed to give their adopted city a cultural shot in the arm.

Lofty

Space

   The Urban Word Café and Conduit nightclub are
the legs on which the Trenton Makes arts complex will stand, but its artistic
heart and soul might end up being the interconnected studios that twist
through the 19th century buildings on South Broad Street.

   The upstairs and part of the basement of the three corner
buildings have been transformed into 26 spaces housing artists working
in every media imaginable: a body artist, an arts-related public relations
firm and a pair of funky shops.

   To help these artists and retailers get off the ground
in their new home, the three owners have created First Friday, a monthly
happening highlighted by an exhibition of selected artists’ works, open
studios and a reception in the Skyline Room, the complex’s third-floor
ballroom with a chandelier and hardwood floors.

   Ideally, says co-owner David Henderson, you can buy a
painting, browse the Mind and Soul Bookstore and Dream Laloz record shop
or even get a tattoo, all sandwiched between dinner at the Urban Word and
a concert at Conduit. Borrowed from the First Friday event that’s helped
make Philadelphia’s Olde City section a thriving arts destination, the
goal of the Trenton version is to show off the complex while providing
a means for the artists to display and sell their work. And, says Mr. Henderson,
artists get relatively cheap workspace in an environment that breeds creativity.

   "There’s this huge artistic community in and around Trenton
that’s looking for a place to sell their wares, to create their work,"
he says. "The whole New Hope and Lambertville scene has matured and gotten
expensive, so for young artists, that’s really not accessible."

   Mr. Henderson says the spaces weren’t advertised, but
filled up within three weeks just by word of mouth, partly because they
were even cheaper if the artists finished the restoration work.

   "Part of their lease was that they took it semi-raw and
finished it themselves, so the spaces are actually art at this point,"
he says. "They can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week in there, and
then certain times, the biggest of which will be First Friday, the whole
building becomes very high-profile gallery space to sell their work."

The next First Friday event at the Trenton Makes complex takes
place Oct. 5, 5-9 p.m. On the Web: www.urbanword.com

   Mr. Hatch, 39, and Mr. Henderson, 43, each moved to Trenton in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s began restoring homes in the city’s Mill Hill district. In 1995, Mr. Pott, a recent college graduate beginning a teaching career in the area, moved to Mill Hill and the three men started plotting an arts oasis in a city devoid of nightlife and outlets for creativity.
   "What we saw that was missing was a public place for artistic expression, whether it was music or sculpture or any number of media," Mr. Henderson says. "There’s a huge market around here with people who are well-educated. If they weren’t living in this area, they’d be living in a city. But they’re not, so that market, and the city itself, was really looking for an outlet for cutting-edge, high-quality art whether that’s a jazz-funk concert or a really great painter."
   By 1997, the partners had a business plan. They decided on a locale in 1998, purchasing the property in the city’s Roebling section. In April 1999, the Urban Word Café opened and quickly gained a reputation as a place where people from all walks of life could enjoy a good hamburger and poetry slam.
   Because the property is bigger than originally intended, it has taken some time for the rest of the project to grow into the large space and to raise the money to complete the other three buildings, which in their past lives had been gutted by fires and filled with garbage.
   The location has turned out to be advantageous. The Sovereign Bank Arena, just a rumor when the partners were looking at properties, opened across the street in October 1999. Just a few minutes from Waterfront Park, the Trenton War Memorial and the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center rising on Lafayette Street, the Trenton Makes complex is now poised to tap into the rapid growth along the Route 1 Corridor.
   "Conduit fits into what’s happening in the region because you’ve got Philadelphia, you’ve got New York and you’ve got Trenton," Mr. Pott says. "There’s a million people within about 20 minutes of Urban Word and there’s 7.4 million within a 45-minute drive. People don’t always want to go into Philadelphia or New York and have to deal with parking, and have to make the drive."
   "You want to do that sometimes," adds Mr. Hatch, "but if you have cool stuff closer to home, you can do fun stuff more often."
   The partners would like to have all the finishing touches complete by the end of the year, but plan to continue aggressively marketing Trenton Makes, maybe take a breather at some point and keep pushing other entrepreneurs to follow their lead.
   "In an ideal situation, there would be lots of businesses open up and down the street," Mr. Pott says.
   "And that’s what we think is going to happen," adds Mr. Hatch.
Conduit is located at 439 S. Broad St., Trenton. Graham Parker &
the Figgs perform Sept. 28, 8 p.m. Chris Harford opens. Tickets cost
$18 in advance, $20 at the door. Dance Night featuring DJ Hex Hector
and DJ Davey Gold takes place Sept. 29, 9 p.m. Tickets cost $10,
guest list $8; 21 and over. Net profits from the opening weekend will be donated
to the American Red Cross. For information, call (609) 656-1199. On the Web:
www.conduitmusic.com