Theater rental revenue continues to grow for the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) as overall revenues outpaced expenses in 2018 and eclipsed $1 million for the fourth consecutive year.

The 92-year-old facility in downtown Rahway, which was purchased and renovated by Union County more than a decade ago, reported total revenue last year of $1.366 million. That was up almost 10 percent from $1.246 million the year before, and about 18 percent higher than the five-year (2014-2018) average of $1.158 million. Total revenue is the highest since 2012 when UCPAC reported $1.575 million.

Here’s a spreadsheet of the UCPAC’s financials covering 2008 through 2018 along with five-year averages for some context to the latest figures, covering the year ending June 2018.

Total expenses were up about 8 percent, from $1.245 million in 2017 to $1.342 million last year. It was the fourth year in a row that revenues outpaced expenses, finishing more than $24,000 on the positive side.

Ticket sales were down about 4 percent to $399,000 but theater rental was up 16 percent, to $736,000. It continued to make up a bigger portion of overall revenue, about 54 percent last year — the third consecutive year that it comprised a majority of revenue. As recently as 2015, theater rental was about third of revenues and as little as 12 percent almost a decade ago.

Theater rental revenue is probably at its ceiling, based on staffing and local demographics, according to UCPAC Executive Director Brian Remo.

Contributions were about $122,000, up about $10,000 from the previous year but almost half of the five-year average of about $211,000. Contributions hit a peak in 2015 at more than $450,000 thanks in part to a restricted gift of $145,000 to create an endowment for senior programming.

“Program is growing and that’s what you want,” Remo said, adding that the number of soldout shows have been increasing each year, with about a half-dozen in 2018. Between the Main Stage, Hamilton Stage and Fazioli Room, there are more than 300 events, according to Remo, with rarely a dark weekend at the facility since in his five years as executive director.

UCPAC could face increased competition after the September opening of the new, $172-million New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.  “If anything, ironically, it could only help,” Remo said, pointing out that the new facility could bring thousands of people to the area each year who want to attend live events. By comparison, the 1,334-seat UCPAC opened in 1928.

There’s also the Forum Theatre in nearby Metuchen, which the borough is aiming to purchase and preserve as the centerpiece of a new arts district. The theater, also from 1928, had been named in 2016 as among the most endangered properties in the state by Preservation New Jersey.

“A new theater can pop up all the time,” Remo said, and there will always be other theaters, for example, as the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, South Orange Performing Arts Center, and Englewood’s BergenPAC. “It’s about making the arts more accessible.”