New concept for artists: co-op lofts

By Alexander Reid, Globe Staff

Efforts to create more affordable space for Lowell's artists continue to gain momentum with a developer's plan to offer 12 spaces in two vacant factory buildings on Middlesex Street. The units will form a new artists' cooperative and will be sold at below-market prices, a spokesman for the developer said.

Construction is set to begin next month on the project, which will create six loft spaces where artists can live and work, in both the Marston buildings and the Protective Union Building. Bruce K. Cole, managing director of the developer, the Greater Boston Housing Trust, said the project will be something of a novelty in Lowell.

"These will be cooperative units," said Cole. "The buyers will become shareholders in the corporation, which will own the building. There's nothing like it in Lowell today."

The co-ops have two major attractions.

First, they will be sold at below-market prices. Cole said two units would be sold as affordable housing, for about $144,000 each to buyers with salaries of 80 percent of the median annual income for the Lowell area, which is $46,000 for an individual living alone. Prices of the other units will climb to $345,000, but will average about $180 a square foot. Prices for other artists' lofts in Lowell average at least $225 per square foot, Cole said.

Second, the buildings will be marketed and owned by the cooperative, which will have bylaws to mandate that all occupants are artists.

Steve Syverson, president of the Arts League of Lowell, said the bylaws would preserve the development as a place for artists.

"It's space that artists can reasonably afford, and the fact that it's a co-op, which will restrict occupancy to artists, will make it artist-friendly forever," he said.

Besides providing space for artists, the project marks a significant step in the city's massive urban renewal project known as the Jackson-Appleton-Middlesex, or JAM, corridor. The project would transform blighted areas into a neighborhood with retail businesses, offices, and about 1,000 apartments and condominiums.

Adam Baacke, deputy director for planning and development for Lowell, said the new coops would provide an opportunity to include artists' spaces as a part of this mix.

"An artist community there will help bring a level of vitality and energy to the neighborhood," he said. ''It's happened throughout the downtown. We were eager to make sure they would be a part of this urban renewal project."

Cole's company bought the two buildings last summer for $279,000. The onetime factories had been vacant for years. ''They were dilapidated eyesores," Baacke said.

Discussions between city planners and Cole spawned the idea for artists' co-ops, Baacke said.

The co-op project is not the only attempt to increase artists' spaces. The city established an artists' space overlay district in 1998, hoping to encourage developers to build live/work lofts and studio spaces downtown. The developers did build, but the prices for the luxuriously appointed units were more than all but the most affluent artists could afford. As a result, these condominiums attracted people with deep pockets who were not artists.

"A good number of artists moved into downtown Lowell but many, probably the majority who are active in the city, could not afford to," said Baacke. "They were priced out."

The co-ops could help reverse that trend. The transaction included a stipulation that they be redeveloped for artists' spaces. Cole, whose Boston-based company specializes in development of distressed properties in urban areas, said his firm recognized the market for live/work co-ops in Lowell.

"Our research told us there was almost nothing as far as places where people could live within their residence and have a separate space to work," Cole said. "We knew there were many artists who set up makeshift studios in a spare bedroom or den, or even a cellar. These will have dedicated studio space, which can be used for work or as a gallery."