The fate of the Phoenix, an art gallery, music hall and community center in downtown Waterbury, is in limbo after the building’s new owner sent the tenants an email in late December canceling their leases and requesting their keys back due to alleged unpaid rent. If successful, the action would force the Phoenix and other commercial tenants of the two-story historic building to vacate the property almost immediately.
On December 22, Joseph Pensak and Anna Black, co-owners of AMPS, the parent company of several Waterbury businesses at 5–7 Stowe Street, including the Phoenix, Waterbury Studios and the Hesterly Black art gallery, received the email from the building’s new owners: Radio Vermont Group Acquisition, Whitehill Invention Five LLC and Myers Mermel. Mermel, who lives in Manchester, is co-owner, along with Caroline McLain and Scott Milne, of Radio Vermont, which owns WDEV Radio and its building at 9 Stowe Street immediately next door. In September they bought the building at 5-7 Stowe Street, which is also home to the studio of artist and furniture maker T.R. Risk.
Black and Pensak, who are married and live in Waterbury, have filed suit, claiming breach of contract by their new landlord — their leases aren’t due to expire until 2027 and 2028 — and disputing the owner’s claim of unpaid rent. In a complaint filed on December 30 in Washington County Superior Court, the tenants allege that they made all required rent payments on time and in full, totaling $9,000, but that Mermel never cashed or deposited the checks. Photos of those checks were attached to the complaint.
The threat, which the plaintiffs characterized as “an eviction notice,” nearly derailed a New Year’s Eve dance party scheduled at the Phoenix — that is, until Superior Court Judge Daniel Richardson issued a temporary restraining order until a hearing can be held on the dispute later this month. The judge also barred the building owner from enforcing newly proposed “building rules and regulations” against the tenants and subtenants. One rule would require the tenants to get all scheduled events preapproved by the landlord.
While Judge Richardson didn’t weigh in on all the merits of the case, he noted that the plaintiffs “have made out a strong claim for breach of contract and wrongful termination.” A court hearing is scheduled for January 15.
“This completely ruined our holidays,” said Pensak, who received the email three days before Christmas.
Pensak, cofounder and head curator of the Phoenix, is also a songwriter and recording artist. When the business opened in 2023, he partnered with Anne Decker, a Waterbury musician, composer and founder of the nonprofit TURNmusic, which regularly hosts concerts throughout Vermont, often featuring emerging composers and contemporary chamber ensembles.
Pensak also curates the Hesterley Black gallery, on the second floor of the historic building, with Black, who is herself an artist, musician and attorney. According to emails included in the couple’s complaint, it was Black’s role as an attorney that became a sticking point for Mermel. While the tenants sought to resolve the rent dispute in person, Mermel balked at the idea of any meeting that involved attorneys, including Black, even though she is co-owner of Pensak’s businesses. TREEHOUSE, Pensak’s coworking and retail space at Elm and Main streets, is not affected by this dispute.
Reached by phone, Mermel declined to answer questions about the lawsuit or what plans, if any, he has for the building, saying he has been traveling out of state and had yet to read the tenants’ complaint. But in a prepared statement, he said: “Whitehill Invention Five LLC served lease terminations, after months of notices, alleging multiple independent monetary and non-monetary defaults at 5-7 Stowe Street [in Waterbury]. A court hearing is scheduled. We will comply with all court orders, but we won’t try this case in the press.”
However, soon after his phone conversation with Seven Days, Mermel forwarded an email sent to all Radio Vermont clients, in which he alleged numerous factual errors in press accounts published in the Waterbury Roundabout and the Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus about the dispute. In it, Mermel claimed that he has not been served with the complaint and is not evicting his tenants. (A copy of the lease termination email is included in the complaint.) He also claimed that past-due rent and “additional rent amounts” exceed $120,000.
“There are significant non-monetary defaults concerning supposed subleases, insurance, staffing, security, and fire safety,” Mermel added, raising “significant concerns about the physical safety of the occupants of the leased premises of 5-7 Stowe Street and our employees in our adjoining headquarters at 9-11 Stowe Street.”
When reached by phone, Pensak was flabbergasted by Mermel’s assertion that he is owed $120,000. Pensak noted that rent on all the spaces in the building totals $3,000 per month, as evident from the building’s leases.
Pensak said he has invested more than $50,000 of his own money in the spaces, which included his entire life savings and a $10,000 loan, which he is still paying off, for noise attenuation, a PA system, museum-quality lighting and other improvements. He said he created the Phoenix and surrounding spaces “for the common good of the community … as a cultural hub for Waterbury which didn’t exist before we started it.”
Since word spread about the December email, Pensak and Black have received an outpouring of emails and letters of support from Waterbury residents and businesses as well as Vermont arts organizations and educators. Several were included as exhibits in the lawsuit.
“When I think of the vibrant cultural life of Waterbury, top of the list is the Phoenix and its connected studio and art space, the Hesterly Black,” wrote Dr. William Ellis, professor of music and director of performing arts at Saint Michael’s College. “An art gallery is more than paintings on a wall, after all. In the right hands, it is a gathering place to foster community and creativity, to help define and distinguish a town’s cultural identity, and be a space where all people are welcome.”
Dr. Kyle Saulnier, director of jazz activities at Middlebury College, described the action as “abrupt and frankly, cruel.”
“The Phoenix is not only a performance space; it is becoming a cornerstone of Vermont’s local creative economy and is a gathering place that strengthens community connection and vitality,” Saulnier wrote. “Its loss would cause significant harm to artists, neighboring businesses, and the broader cultural life of Waterbury and the State of Vermont.”
Mermel is no stranger to controversy. As VTDigger reported in October 2023, the former U.S. Senate candidate, who sought the Republican nomination in 2022, was fired from his position as president and director of the Ethan Allen Institute, a conservative think tank. At the time, Mermel described the nonprofit board’s action as “retaliation” for his calls for greater financial transparency.
Despite the bad blood, Pensak has asked his supporters in the community not to engage in character assassination or personal attacks against Mermel or his business.
“You can express your dismay,” he said, “but we’re not about canceling anyone.”
This article appears in January 7 • 2026.
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