New artists’ digs waiting for tenants
(Hamilton Spectator, Saira Peesker, Nov 8 2013)
The city got a look at Hamilton's first public artists' residence Friday when 95 King St. E. kicked off Art Crawl by opening its doors.
The Gore Park building owned by CityHousing Hamilton will eventually house 12 creative tenants in lofty, modern apartments — and even more will use studio and event space — but only after its managers decide on selection criteria and a contractor to manage the studios.
Redesigned by TCA Architects, the edifice that once housed a downtown nightclub and strip joints boasts exposed brick, high ceilings and handmade wooden doors. In addition to the 12 apartments, there are eight studios and a large event and gallery space.
Architect Bill Curran said his team focused on making the space conducive to building community. Shared washing stations and windows looking into the studios are some of the features designed to help tenants get to know each other, and maybe eventually collaborate.
The building costs were pegged at $3 million and the project seems to be on-budget apart from some finishing touches, CityHousing manager Vimal Sarin said Friday.
Sarin expects the studios to rent for between $200 and $240, while the apartments will likely go for $800 to $850. Estimates last year from CityHousing had predicted rents of about $650.
For a fairly small one-bedroom unit — between 500 and 700 square feet — sound artist Victoria Fenner thought the new price seemed steep.
"At $800, it's not that affordable for your rank-and-file artist," she said Friday, adding she's had a hard time getting details on how tenants would be selected. "I don't know if they have any idea how they're going to decide."
Sarin said the application criteria would be defined by next week. After that, the next step is to go to CityHousing's board with a shortlist of potential operators for the studio and event space.
Sarin said the units will occupied by February at the latest.
The project price tag has variously described as anywhere from
$1.9M to
$2.9M to
$3.5M to
$4M+.
I have to imagine that gets factored into the per-unit valuation at some point.
In August 2009,
CityHousing anticipated breaking the upper floors into 10 one-bedroom units renting at $633/month (bringing in $75,960/year).
By
December 2012, that had changed to a dozen 1BR units at ~$650/month (bringing in ~$93,600/year).
The latest arrangement looks to net $115,200-$122,400/yr off the dozen 1BR units, plus $19,200-$23,040/yr off eight studios (bringing in $134,400-$145,440/year).
CityHousing's original math also foresaw ground-floor commercial space going for $15/square foot. It’s not clear whether those numbers have also changed.
Prev
Linear Mode
