Scott Everett, center, with guests at the Lakeport Opera House.
As founder and president of Supreme Lending in Texas, Scott Everett leads 4,000 employees in 400 branches nationwide, but he has never forgotten his roots in NH’s Lakes Region, where he still has family and vacations during the summer.
The Gilford native is investing millions in Lakeport, having recently redeveloped and opened the Lakeport Opera House.
The exterior of the Opera House.
Kitty corner from the opera house, he is developing a project with restaurant and retail space on the first floor, apartments on the second floor and condos on the third. He expects that project to be completed in 15 months. And Everett says he has more development projects in the works.
“There’s no better place to give back than this community,” Everett says of being among those investing in Laconia’s revitalization. “We can turn Lakeport into one of the finer communities around the lake.”
The interior of the Opera House, amid renovations.
The building that houses the Lakeport Opera House had been closed for 60 years before Everett breathed new life into it. “For the last 10 years I would drive by this wonderful centerpiece of this community, and it was boarded up,” Everett says.
When the building’s owner decided to finally sell the building, Everett bought it sight unseen. “I went in and there were 80 Cadillacs on the second floor. It was crazy,” he says.
The finished renovation.
Underneath all those Cadillacs was a theater. Everett invested more than $1 million over the past three years to redevelop the 1882 landmark, attracting the Laconia Daily Sun to move to the first floor and Wayfarer roastery cafe to open a second location there.
Once the first floor was completed, Everett and his team spent the past year and a half restoring the theater. The Lakeport Opera House hosted its first performance—The Flutie Brothers Band, which includes former NFL star and UNH student Doug Flutie and his brother Darren—on June 12 and has offered live entertainment every weekend since, selling out every show, Everett says. “Our focus was to create a world class user experience,” he says. The Opera House is a family affair with Everett’s brother Tim James Everett serving as the venue director.
The Flutie Brothers Band performing on stage in June.
The Lakeport Opera House, which seats 220, also hosts community events as well as weddings, and private and corporate gatherings. Seats have cocktail table access or drink rails for refreshments, and the lounge includes a full bar and lakeside views through large windows. Several features from the 1882 building remain including reconditioned wood floors, replicated tin ceilings and the original stage and curtains. An old map of Laconia and an original poster from the May 11, 1930 performance found inside the walls during the renovation are on display.
While honoring the building’s past, Everett says he is excited for the future and all the things it can be and how the town has embraced this project.
For more information, visit lakeportopera.com.
Current Issue - May 2024