Empty New York Store Fronts Attracting Artists

Diane Carewell of the NY Times is reporting that artists are helping NY landlords temporarily fill empty store fronts. The retail spaces the artists are typically taking advantage of is at times either donated or rented and far below market rates.  This helps the artists gain notoriety and also keeps the space occupied until better times and new rent paying businesses are located by the landlord.

The good news is artist are getting more exposure to show their work, the downside is the economy is still hurting as landlords and commercial real estate brokers look for short term flexible ways to temporarily fill space as the longer term lease and entrepreneurship continues to wane.

Carewell states

The art may vary in style and shock value, but the settings are essentially the same — spaces donated or leased for a song by building owners unable to rent or develop them.

As the recession drags on and storefronts across New York remain empty, commercial landlords are turning to an unlikely new class of tenants: artists, who in flusher times tend to get pushed out rather than lured in. And the price of entry is not deep pockets, but vivid imaginations and splashy exhibits — anything to lend the darkened buildings a sense of life.

On terms that are cut-rate and usually temporary — a few weeks or months — the artist gets a gallery or studio, and the landlord gets a vibrant attraction that may deter crime and draw the next wave of paying tenants.

“Any sort of activity is better than no activity,” said Jed Walentas, a Brooklyn developer whose company, Two Trees Management, routinely lends space in Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn for art projects. “As long as it’s short enough and it’s flexible, then there’s no real cost. So the question is who can you find that’s going to make an investment in a space with that level of uncertainty, and often it’s the artist.”

These “pop-up galleries,” as they are known in Britain, where the phenomenon is well established, are increasingly taking hold in New York as development advocates and landlords struggle to keep up appearances where commerce and construction have stalled.

The demand among landlords is so high that Chashama, a group that has been working for almost 15 years to find vacant real estate for visual and performing artists, no longer has to go looking.

To read the full NY Times article, click HERE.