Challenge:
Support the local creative economy and downtown redevelopment effort with an arts-focused, affordable mixed-use project that could combine: affordable live/work space, artist studio-only space, complementary commercial spaces, and/or an art center.
Goals:
- Refine the project concept based on the needs of the creative community
- Determine the feasibility of an affordable and sustainable facility in Olympia
- Help local leaders navigate the path toward the identified priority project
Scope of Work:
Preliminary Feasibility Visit, Arts Market Survey, and Expanded Feasibility Study
Through several phases of work between 2009 and 2015, Artspace worked with local stakeholders to help articulate the space needs of the arts community, identify and prioritize potential sites, secure letters of interest from key community-based commercial tenants, identify funding tools, and build support among local leadership for an arts facility. One finding was that the development funding sources available for the affordable live/work component would be difficult to obtain under the funding program’s current priorities, and that the gap funding necessary would be prohibitively high. Therefore, Artspace recommended that the community independently move forward with a non-residential project. The consulting team provided preliminary predevelopment services to support the local stakeholders in this effort including: financial pro formas for priority project concepts, example project models, and recommended next steps.