Marblehead musician and entrepreneur Johnny Ray is responding to allegations that he is four months behind on rent at his new Swampscott Performing Arts Center, saying he has invested substantial resources into restoring the building (the old Hawthorne by the Sea restaurant) and remains committed to reaching a resolution with the town.
“It is not fair to discuss the lease situation without acknowledging the condition of the building when we took it on and the tremendous amount of work, investment and dedication required to make it what it is today,” Ray said in a statement to the Marblehead Current.
Swampscott Town Manager Nicholas Connors announced the performing arts center is four months behind on rent during a Nov. 4 Select Board meeting.
“There’s a plan for catch up payments in the coming weeks,” Connors said. He suggested the board would meet in executive session, which is closed to the public, to “explore all of the options and opportunities at our disposal to move forward.”
In his statement, Ray emphasized the work involved in transforming the property into a performing arts venue.
“Our lease also includes an out clause that would have allowed us to terminate the agreement if the cost of necessary repairs to make the building operational exceeded a specified threshold. We surpassed that threshold long ago,” he wrote.”Despite that, we chose to remain committed to the project because we believed in its potential and in what it could bring to the community. We have invested everything we have into bringing this building up to code, correcting years of accumulated problems, and transforming it into a safe, compliant, and viable community space. This has required an extraordinary financial and personal commitment. “
He added: “We will continue to work directly with the town and remain committed to reaching a fair and reasonable resolution. However, any resolution must take into account the full circumstances surrounding this property, the condition in which it was delivered to us, the challenges we encountered, and the substantial investment we have made to restore it. We have put too much of ourselves, our resources and our faith in this community into this project to give up on it now.”
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office has received several complaints against Ray’s Marblehead venture, ANH Restaurant and Entertainment, which includes The Beacon Restaurant and Warwick Cinema. The complaints allege “non-payment of wages.”
Last month, the former general manager of the Warwick Theatre publicly accused the movie theater’s ownership group of failing to pay employees, movie studios and vendors despite bringing in more than $500,000 in ticket and concession revenue during the first eight months of 2026.
Former general manager Tim Nasson shared a performance report with the Current supporting that $500,000 figure.
Nasson, who says he left his position Sept. 1 after repeated disputes over unpaid bills and wages, alleges that the theater and its operators, including Johnny Ray and ANH Restaurant and Entertainment Group LLC, have accumulated more than $150,000 in outstanding obligations to movie distributors and other businesses.
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