Group might build affordable artist homes

OLYMPIA – Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization that builds affordable housing for artists, is considering developing a project in Olympia and will pay a formal visit next month. And city officials are rolling out the red carpet, organizing a night of entertainment and dialogue for Sept. 16 at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts.

“In that meeting, it’s a real opportunity for us to first kind of show what our projects are like and then get feedback from that community,” said Cathryn Vandenbrink, regional director for Artspace in Seattle. “It’s a real chance to have this broad group of people.”

The Sept. 16 meeting will include appearances by Crow Drummers, the Random Acts of Dance Collective, the Randy Baugh Band and the Olympia Free Choir, as well as a sidewalk show conducted by Olympia Capoeira Angola.

Stephanie Johnson, arts and events program manager for the city, said the event is an opportunity to ask questions.

“We’re all checking each other out,” she said. “We want to see if we want to move forward.”

In its visit Sept. 16-17, Artspace will meet with local officials and artists and scope out possible project sites downtown. Johnson hopes to impress Artspace and “show what our community is all about.”

City Community Services Manager Steve Friddle said city is wooing Artspace because it wants to develop more housing units downtown. The city’s current comprehensive plan, which dates to 1994, recommended 1,500 new market-rate units by 2010, but few have been built.

“On top of that, there’s a need for affordable housing,” Friddle said. “One component of that affordable housing is a group of artists. This particular group gets priced out.”

Artspace has developed 24 projects in 12 states, Vandenbrink said. Most of those are live/work spaces, although a handful are commercial buildings. The organization rehabilitates old buildings or builds new ones that typically include artists’ work and living space in the same unit. After building the projects, Artspace continues to own them and rent spaces to artists. Artspace selects tenants based on income and ability to show they have done artistic work, not based on the quality of the work, Vandenbrink said.

“You’ll have a writer, a poet living next door to a musician, living next door to a leather craftsman.” she said. Other artists, she said, could be sculptors, actors, painters or flower arrangers.

“The diversity is mind-boggling,” Vandenbrink said.

If the organization were to build here, residents could make no more than 60 percent of the median household income for Thurston County, Vandenbrink said. The county’s median income is $46,400 for a one-person household, said Anna Schlecht, city housing program specialist. That means a one-person household could have an income of no more than $27,840 to get into an Artspace project here.

Artspace has built two projects in Seattle in the past decade; a third is under way in Everett.

Artspace takes the lead on raising money for its projects, which it does in part through donations and grants. The city could contribute housing money or offer tax credits to incentivize the project.

If Olympia still interests Artspace after the visit, the next step is to do a market study, Vandenbrink said. After that, the organization would decide in the next six months to a year, she said.

Vandenbrink said the group believes in in-fill development and density for downtowns. “I think artist housing is a great catalyst for housing development in downtown areas.”

Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869

mbatcheldor@theolympian.com