A hefty, potentially debilitating rent increase at the artists’ community known as the Arts Center on First was narrowly averted Thursday after Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham stepped in to mediate the dispute.
The increase, which was circulated among the building’s approximately 130 visual artists, musicians, filmmakers and designers early last week, ranged between 25 percent to as much as 300 percent per studio space. Represented by artist and tenant association president Bill Rodwell, the building’s occupants said the move was the second phase in the landlord’s plan to thwart the city’s progress in building a thriving, Downtown arts district.
By raising rents and driving the artists out of the building, they said, the area would ultimately lose the necessary high concentration of creative professionals in the neighborhood.
The converted warehouse is located at 111 First St. and is a key venue for the town’s annual Artists Studio Tours. The artists’ spaces are for working, but not living.
A tentative resolution
Mayoral spokespersons said late Thursday that Cunningham had brokered an agreement with the building’s owner, New York-based New Gold Equities, to postpone any rent increase until the end of the year.
"The mayor has requested that the owner or principals of the building rescind that order to raise the rent," city spokesperson Stan Eason said. "The mayor has also requested, and they’ve agreed [to both requests], to set up a meeting for a dialogue between the owner, the mayor and the occupants to see if there can be some kind of amicable agreement reached. We’ve made some headway and we can see if this can be worked out."
Mayoral liaison Greg Brickey was sent Thursday night to the Arts Center on First, located Downtown at 111 First St., to tell the building’s occupants about the status of the rent increase. After the meeting was over, the more than 50 studio renters in attendance expressed relief at the mayor’s involvement.
"We’re very happy with Mayor Cunningham," Rodwell said. "He did a terrific job. Deputy Mayor Anthony Cruz was also helpful in helping us to dodge the bullet on this one."
Other tenants also expressed relief, but their comments were tinged with a sense of apprehension that the deferral of the rent increase is only a temporary salve.
"Thank God [the rent increase was rescinded]," said mixed media artist Tyrone Thomas, 32, a renter at 111 First St. for seven years. "But it’s still definitely a risk."
Robert Rapuano, New Gold Equities’ vice president of commercial leasing, didn’t return several phone calls as of press time.
"This is our gravest crisis in 14 years," tenant Bill Rodwell had said before the mayor’s intervention. "[The landlord is] trying to bully the city."
Arts at stake
The tenants at 111 First St. are caught between a subtle but emergent conflict between the city and New Gold Equities over the city’s plans to designate the eight-block area of run-down warehouses as the Powerhouse Arts District [PAD]. The designation, slated to happen next month at a Planning Board meeting, includes an exhaustive plan that would rezone the area in an attempt to turn it into a thriving arts district.
New Gold representatives have previously said in published reports the PAD designation would limit their ability to profitably develop their property. The company owns two buildings in the area, the Arts Center on First at 111 First St. and another former warehouse across the street at 110 First St.
Both structures are located on Washington Boulevard directly across from the Powerhouse, an early 20th century transportation structure that will serve as PAD’s signature building and fulcrum. City planners said last week they are expecting New Gold to file formal objections to the designation so as to delay any formal action by the Planning Board.
Tenants at 111 First St. said the viability of the PAD concept will be eliminated if New Gold succeeds in pushing them out of the building, either through rent increases or other strategies that will make tenancy at the building impossible for artists.
"111 First Street started the arts movement in Jersey City," said Bella Marsky, 46, a painter and designer who has been at the Arts Center on First for nine years. "If they eliminate this community, there will be nothing left. Everything is happening here."
Unreliable landlord
Rodwell, who described rental rates as "dirt cheap" when artists first started moving in almost 15 years ago, conceded that a rent increase would be a natural course of action for any landlord. But conditions at the building remain abysmal, he said, and New Gold has done little to make the building worth the rent increase they proposed.
"The building is not in line with other buildings in the area," he said. "People have been complaining about the sorry state of the public bathrooms, which are unusable. And the elevators break down constantly. There have been leakages from the roof."
In addition, New Gold has failed to rent out a total of 39 vacant studio spaces in the building despite a consistent demand for the space.
"We get what we pay for," Rodwell added. "This is not about raising the rent or about having the money for improvements. This is a pure-power play to rid the building of tenants."
Added Rodwell, "It’s really time to acknowledge realities in this town and have some type of form of rent stabilization and rent control for buildings like 111 First St. Otherwise, the city will lose the arts community in the next six months to a year. The city will lose credibility as trying to attract culture in its midst. Without artists in an arts district, that will be quite frankly a sham."
Waiting for the next step
Artists present at Thursday night’s tenants’ meeting said they are looking forward to this week’s meeting with city officials, where they said they will try to impress upon the mayor the urgency of their situation.
One of their most pressing demands is for New Gold to allow all tenants to sign a lease agreement, which artists said would give them a sense of security in their studio space. Some older tenants have leases, said furniture designer and 10-year tenant Kurt Von Ellers, but the majority of the building’s occupants are on a month-to-month "holdover tenancy" agreements.
The lack of any state or city-mandated guidelines that would protect commercial tenants also exacerbates the problem, the artists said.
"We’ve been slowly dealing with this for years," said writer Erik Goldring, 40, a tenant for almost eight years. "We kind of feel like we’re on a chopping block."