Creative catalyst could boost core
Incubator would benefit city financially, nurture arts scene: study
January 19, 2010
Paul Morse
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/707553
A major report that advocates Hamilton get behind developing a massive arts incubator downtown lands at city hall this morning.
The Hamilton Creative Catalyst Project Feasibility Study calls for the city to take advantage of creative energies already transforming parts of the urban landscape by creating a centralized facility downtown to house and nurture a burgeoning "creative sector."
The $150,000 report comes before the economic development and planning committee at the Sheraton Hotel this morning.
According to the report, the "creative catalyst" incubator would occupy an iconic building or buildings and generate up to $3.8 million in property tax annually depending on the tenant mix and location.
An incubator could be home to market -oriented businesses as well as artist driven, from, for example, culinary arts, fashion, education and medical technology to music, film and new media. They would share common spaces and benefit from interaction with each other.
Two sizes are proposed:
* A 50,000-plus-square-foot incubator would cost up to $11.4 million to buy and renovate, but bring in up to $58 million in estimated overall economic benefits to the city.
* A 120,000-plus-square-foot building that would house an educational partner such as a McMaster University creative program or a large cultural partner. The consultants estimate capital costs would be up to $21 million, but return an economic benefit of up to $230 million.
It recommends the city partner with Hamilton's non-profit Imperial Cotton Centre for the Arts to manage the creative incubator somewhere in the core.
"The issue of long-term ownership is the most complex part about this project because that ... dictates how much each body puts in financially," said Jeremy Freiburger, executive director of the Imperial Cotton Centre, a non-profit group that provides creative space in Hamilton.
The report rejects current city-owned sites in and around the core as incubator locations because most are vacant and would require new construction.
Other city-owned buildings are already leased or used directly by municipal departments. There is also potential conflict with city space earmarked for the 2015 Pan Am Games, but the report also notes the Games may offer a "co-location" opportunity.
The report did not identify specific buildings of interest because of potential negotiations. Freiburger said the incubator could go in anywhere from the base of the Mountain to the waterfront.
"We've looked at how other communities have done it, and they've done it in a whole host of other ways," including being owned and run by the municipality, or wholly owned by a non-profit or for-profit company.
Most likely, Freiburger said, a major creative incubator will require "a conglomerate" of partners.
The city-commissioned report, done by Toronto firms N. Barry Lyon Consultants and Consulting Matrix, recommends Hamilton's creative sector -- particularly the city's undervalued music industry -- be used to help revitalize the downtown and grow the local economy.
It compares Hamilton's potential as a "cultural city" with Austin, Texas, Halifax and Glasgow, where the music and arts scene have spurred significant economic and urban landscape revitalizations.