Artspace - Building Better Communities Through The Arts 

The City of Waukegan commands a strategic Lake Michigan site midway between Milwaukee and Chicago. Manufacturing and shipping were its primary industries for decades, but now the community is looking to the arts to drive economic revitalization of its downtown area. As a major step in that direction, Artspace will transform the historic Karcher Hotel into a mixed-use arts facility.

The Karcher, a nine-story building in the heart of downtown Waukegan, opened in 1928 as a 140-room hotel but has been vacant since 1984. Like many Artspace properties, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Artspace will completely renovate the building’s interior to create 36 units of affordable live/work space for artists and their families plus 2,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and community space for arts-friendly businesses and nonprofit organizations. Other amenities will include a two-story community room, an outdoor patio, and open gallery space on each residential level.

The $12.8 million project is under construction and slated to open in 2012.