Artspace Projects Inc.
Background and Purpose
Artspace Projects Inc (Artspace) was founded in 1979 as an advocate for artists who were being forced out of Minneapolis’ historic Warehouse District by rising rents. The mission of Artspace is to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations. By the late 1980s Artspace made the leap from advocate to developer. Since then, the scope of Artspace activities has grown dramatically.
Artspace is now the nation’s leading nonprofit developer of affordable space for artists and arts organizations. To date, Artspace has completed 14 major “live/work” projects with 721 units in which each residential unit also contains sufficient space for a working studio. In the mid 1990s Artspace broadened its mission to include non-residential projects. The first of these, the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art (1995), transformed a historic bakery in the Minneapolis Warehouse District into 24 studios for mid-career artists. Artspace is currently working on the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center, a $37 million, three-building cultural complex in downtown Minneapolis, which will serve as a performing home for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and 20 other arts groups when completed.
Over the last few years, Artspace has evolved from a Minnesota organization with a few national projects into a truly national organization based in the Twin Cities. Artspace now has projects in more than a dozen states and has helped communities in 40 states address their arts-related space issues. Artspace programs fall into three broad categories: property development, asset management and national consulting.
Current Request
In 1989 the City of Saint Paul invited Artspace to develop the Northern Warehouse (Northern) as an artist housing cooperative. The Northern has 52 units of housing, artists’ studios and two floors of non-residential space for arts-related business. In 1989 tax credits had not been used in the purchase of affordable housing for artists. The city required Artspace to form a limited partnership with a commercial developer who was experienced in the use of tax credits.
Currently the limited partnership is the owner of the Northern. The 15-year tax credit has expired and in order to keep the Northern as an affordable housing project Artspace will have to purchase the building from the limited partnership. Artspace is requesting funds to assist in the purchase of the Northern and for rehab work to the building, such as a roof replacement, window replacement, tuck pointing and the replacement of countertops and cabinets in certain units.