The bitter may have slightly outweighed the sweet for former co-owner John Pasquale when The Stone Church sold at auction on Sept. 12. The Newmarket venue went for just $195,000, much less than what Pasquale and his partners paid for it four years ago, and the former owners still have debt to pay off.

The good news is that the building’s new owners have vowed to continue filling it with live music. Scott Orlosk, of Londonderry, and Adam Schroadter, of Newmarket, say they want to uphold the former owners’ vision and keep the music alive in Newmarket.

“The building sold for a song, essentially, which is bad for us,” Pasquale said. “We’re happy that a guy like Scott, who appreciates what we did and wants to build upon that, is the guy that’s going to try to move forward.”

Orlosk said his primary mission in purchasing The Stone Church was to make sure it remains a performing arts venue and does not get turned into a condominium complex.

“There was certainly risk that it could be bought by someone who wanted to do something else in there, and that was a real concern to a lot of people,” Orlosk said. “It’s a culturally significant place.”

Orlosk, who was previously president of Autofair of New Hampshire, connected with Schroadter, who has served as marketing director of both the Staples Center in Los Angeles and AVP Pro Beach Volleyball. The two purchased the property together, and Orlosk brought on board Art Murphy, of Epping, who has familiarized himself with the music scene while running Thumbprint Productions. 

Orlosk confessed that he has no experience running a music venue, and he is still figuring out the details of his business plan. Ideas include turning the building’s second floor into a recording studio and incorporating music education programs.

“What we really wanted to do was make sure the building got owned by people with the right intentions. There are a variety of ways it could eventually work out,” Orlosk said.

Pasquale, Paul Nessel and Peter Hamelin reopened the historic venue in August 2004 and have since brought in a wide range of regional talent and nationally touring bands, including visits this year from Johnny Winter, Richie Havens and the Butthole Surfers. But the owners had trouble recovering their initial investment, when they poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into extensive renovations. The economic downturn worsened matters, and the Church was eventually posted for a foreclosure auction. Pasquale said he was hoping the facility would sell for more money, but there were precious few bidders. He said he has been communicating with Orlosk for a couple of months about keeping the Church as a music venue.

Pasquale, Nessel and Chris Hislop still own Ragnarok Enterprises, the entity that operated the club and owns the rights to The Stone Church name. Pasquale is hoping that Ragnarok will remain involved in the venue and help the new property owners book music in the future. Orlosk said that’s a strong possibility.

“These guys put everything they had—blood, sweat and tears—into this place, so we certainly would want to give them an opportunity to see if they couldn’t come up with a way to participate,” Orlosk said.

The new owners face a number of challenges. Among other things, the building is in need of a sprinkler system to get up to fire code. But Orlosk said he was aware of all the issues.

Orlosk does not know when the venue will host its next show, but he hopes it will be soon.