Artspace breaks ground
By Mike Danahey mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com October 18, 2011 8:36PM
Jim Weylarz walks out of the old Elgin Community College Fountain Square building downtown in October 2011. The building will become the Artspace lofts, a $14.5 million project to create affordable live/work housing for artists. | File~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 20, 2011 8:45AM
ELGIN — Budding filmmaker Gwydhar Gebien and painter Freddrick Wimms were in the downtown Tuesday scoping out what they hope will become their new digs about a year from now.
And while they hope to have affordable housing, the city is hoping that people such as Gebien and Wimms will help to once and for all revitalize the Center City.
The artists were among about 100 people who attended the groundbreaking celebration kicking off the construction phase of Artspace, a $14.5 million project that will create 55 units of live/work housing for artists in what had been Elgin Community College’s downtown campus, at Spring and Fulton streets.
The effort to convert the 1908 Sears and Roebuck store into a creative colony plus a new three-story structure next door to it has been in the works since 2007, when Elgin Arts Showcase coordinator Sylvia Grady contacted Artspace about launching a site in Elgin.
The Elgin Artspace Lofts are being developed by Artspace Projects Inc. of Minneapolis, a nonprofit developer of arts facilities. Over the last two decades, Artspace has completed 30 major projects around the country.
The Elgin project will be Artspace’s second in Illinois, the other being the 24-unit Switching Station Artist Lofts in Chicago that have been in operation since 2003.
In addition to housing, the old Sears building will hold 5,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor along with community space, including a gallery, for use by the project’s residents.
“This will be the centerpiece for downtown and define Elgin as an arts community,” Mayor Dave Kaptain said Tuesday.
Kaptain called the project an example of sustainability, with the people working where they live. He would like to see young artists who are accepted into the program eventually move into Elgin homes.
Kaptain said the project is expected to create about 170 construction jobs. Work should be done in 13 months, but the mayor would like to hold an advance ribbon cutting in early August, timed to the annual Art & Soul on the Fox event that draws hundreds of people downtown.
Kaptain credited his predecessor, Ed Schock, for his role in getting the project off the ground. After Tuesday’s event. Schock said the project means a lot to the city, particularly the arts community. And to see construction going on downtown with the economy as it is was a refreshing sign, Schock said.
The Illinois Housing Development Authority allocated federal tax credits and state affordable housing tax credits to enable the construction of the live-work development. Elgin businessman Mark Seigle led a drive that brought in $500,000 from the private sector toward the project. And the city swapped out land near ECC with the college for the downtown campus, which eventually will put the site back on the property tax rolls.
Downtown Elgin businessman Bill Jones credited the Downtown Neighborhood Association and the late downtown business people Steve Munson and Pat Keeney for their roles in getting the project moving, too.
To qualify for a unit, an artist’s annual income must be at 60 percent or less of the Chicago area median income, which means $30,060 a year for a single person and $45,060 or less for a family of four. Rents will range from $329 for a studio to $1,027 for a three-bedroom place.
To get on the interest list, visit artspaceelgin.org or email project coordinator Heidi Kurtze at heidi.kurtze@artspace.org.
Kurtze complimented the city, its arts and business community Tuesday and said such projects “create safer, more vibrant communities.”
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