It’s a miracle. No, seriously. Tacoma has an art co-op, with housing and everything. 

 

You have the people at Northwest Stage to thank; and a generous property owner, a bunch of creative types, and an amazing young woman who just had a baby. While forming an art co-op. In Tacoma. 

The Tacoma Art Center Building is taking shape at the corner of 25th Street and Tacoma Avenue. The building that once housed a methadone clinic is now occupied by 12 artists, many of whom occupy a semi-communal living space complete with in-the-works galleries, event and performance space, gallery space, a community kitchen, plans for a music studio, and a claw-foot bathtub, for starters. 

 

For those of you licking your chops, there are only two slots left for artists looking to live and work in a space that runs about $2 per square foot, which ain’t bad. 

 

“In one week, I had half the place rented,” says Lisa Fruichantie, co-founder, fellow artist, event planner, mommy to a brand new baby, and all-around superhuman. “There is clearly a demand here. We’ve already got this community thing going. You walk in, and somebody’s making coffee, and saying ‘Do you want some?’” 

 

The Tacoma Art Center Building was born from the generosity of a property owner who worked hard to help progenitor Northwest Stage get into the building. He offered a lease option, supplemented with triple nets, and an option to buy once things are up and running. When the credit market begins to swing upward, Fruichantie is confident that they’ll be able to buy the building. In the meantime, event techs Northwest Stage will occupy a third floor office and some warehouse space, and the rest is filled with a group of fortunate artists. 

 

“We decided that we (Northwest Stage) didn’t need all that space,” says Fruichantie. “Our landlord suggested we rent it to lawyers. But I’ve always lived with artists. We are artists, we’ve always worked with artists, and it just didn’t work for us to go the corporate route. There’s a lot of space for artists in Tacoma, but we had the one thing that no one else had — a building that was zoned for commercial and residential use.” 

 

Not only is the building zoned for commercial and residential use, but it’s nestled into an emerging business sector in downtown Tacoma that may very well become the city’s arts business district.



The so-called brewery district was recently suggested by economic development consultants Angelou Economics as the place to seed an arts-business community. The Texas-based consultants suggested minimizing or eliminating B&O tax rates for so-called creative industries such as design firms, arts organizations and the like, and development of  “Creative Arts Complex.”



This complex was envisioned to include a training center, UW Tacoma’s proposed arts and community program, a Creative Arts Entrepreneurship Accelerator, and limited, low-rent space for artists and nonprofits. Angelou suggested that Tacoma begin with review of regulations for live-work space, followed by pursuit of a legislative strategy to reduce or provide credit for seismic retrofit costs to encourage historic restoration of buildings that creative types can inhabit, a la Seattle’s Georgetown. 

Well, Tacoma, your pilot project has just arrived. 

Who would want to live in an art co-op? 

Well, Mary K. Johnson, well known graphic artist (Weekly Volcano cover artist), designer, painter and event producer; painter Deana Nguyen; musician and painter Micah Tucker; Portland transplant Matt Jost, proud owner of the facility’s only organ, and official organist for the Tacoma Art Center Building; and Ann Koi, painter, art teacher and owner of Catapult Studios. Musician Joel Fizette has plans to transform one of two spaces he’s rented into a music studio. 

 

So there.