NY Times: Dumbo Artists Get Subsidies from Two Trees

Hey its Dumbo in miniature Dumbo

(16 Main Street, the future home of The Galapagos Art Space. Photo courtesy of blackoutny)

An article in today’s NY Times talks about artists and organizations receiving subsidized rent from the Walentas’ Two Trees Management. Of course there’s the notion that the subsidized rents are temporary and that given the pace of gentrification, the future of Dumbo’s artists remain uncertain. A few tibits from the article:

  • When 70 Washington was converted to condos, Two Trees offered every artist in the building below-market rates at 20 Jay or 55 Washington and 80% accepted.
  • Mr. Walentas would like to move St. Ann’s Warehouse to the 19th-century Tobacco Warehouse in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park and convert the Empire Stores Warehouse, on Water Street between Dock and Main Streets, into studio and gallery space. Both are owned by the state.
  • The Galapagos Art Space almost moved to Berlin before Walentas offered a 15 year lease at 16 Main for $6.82 per sq ft.
  • The rents vary depending on the organization and “depends on the space and who they are and what they contribute”: In the 55 Washington building, for example, the James Glass Studio pays $6.77 per square foot per year; Chris Perry Woodworking, $11.39; and the Robinson & Grisaru architectural firm, $19. At 45 Main Street, Lynn Veitzer, an artist, pays $14.61; Jennifer Riley, also an artist, $12.79; and the Dumbo Arts Center, zero.
  • “In 2003 the Walentases told Smack Mellon that it had to vacate its gallery and studio space at 56 Water Street to make room for a 1922 carousel restored by David Walentas’s wife, Jane, an artist. But the developers moved Smack Mellon into a former boiler house at 92 Plymouth Street, gratis, and helped pay for the renovation.”

There’s no question that artists add value to any area/neighborhood, but as gentrification (and rezoning) takes place, and market rate rents go up, artists are forced out of a neighborhood they originally helped to create.

{The Lords of Dumbo Make Room for the Arts, at Least for the Moment, 06Mar2008, NY Times}