In the Region | New Jersey
Desperately Seeking Artists
Dith Pran/The New York Times
The Waldo Lofts building in Jersey City includes warehouselike amenities. James F. Caulfield Jr., left, one of the developers, says the building appeals to artists and people who like to live near them.
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: May 7, 2006
JERSEY CITY
WHAT comes first — the artists, or the funky warehouse-type buildings with big open spaces and lots of light? It is the buildings, of course. Everybody knows that artists find good buildings; buildings do not come looking for them.
In Orange, though, where the city and a nonprofit developer want to create an arts district, they are starting with industrial buildings and hoping draw artists. About 30 big old empty factories and warehouses straddling the city border are ripe for conversion into lofts and studios.
And here in Jersey City, the footprint of the old warehouse district is the site of the Powerhouse Arts District, an eight-block area being redeveloped as a live-work community for artists that has about 140 structures available for conversion.
A few smaller buildings in the Powerhouse district have already been rehabbed and are starting to open for occupancy or creative pursuits. A handful of others are being worked on, and developers are fighting over the rights to renovate dozens more. The builders are promising city planners and arts agencies that they will try their best to instill new life into old structures without denuding them of their vintage industrial charm.
And in one case, a developer is instilling classic industrial features into a brand-new building in order to cater to artists. "Maybe sometimes a building does come looking for them," said James F. Caulfield Jr., one of two brothers who run Fields Development Group, which is constructing the complex.
The project, called Waldo Lofts, is a 12-story, 82-unit condominium building at 159 Second Street scheduled to open in September. Mr. Caulfield said he takes it as a compliment that people walking by comment on the lovely restoration.
The Waldo is specifically designed with the industrial amenities that artists prize — tall ceilings, tall windows, hoist beams for lifting large artwork or heavy materials, shop sinks for washing paintbrushes — and it includes cutting-edge kitchen appliances and free wireless hookup.
The combination has already proved attractive, Mr. Caulfield noted, not just to artists, but also to people who like to live alongside them.
"There is a niche of people who can afford the market rate, and who want this type of lifestyle," he said.
In addition to the amenities tailored to artists, a patio will be set up on a loading dock that will extend out to the sidewalk, Mr. Caulfield said. He said that he and his brother, Robert, envision it as a place for residents to "sit, read a book, play the guitar and soak up street activity."
Regulations require that a certain number of the units in every arts district building be made available at below-market prices — in this case $250,000 to $350,000 — to artists certified by the city's Arts Commission. All seven such units at Waldo Lofts have been sold; about half of the other 75 units have been sold for $300,000 to $700,000, all to people who are not certified by the Arts Commission.
Gary W. Heinz, 33, is among the buyers who are not artists. He recently quit his job on Wall Street to start GWH Ventures, which he describes as a "preservation-oriented real estate development company." He plans to set up a home office in his Waldo Lofts apartment.
"Waldo Lofts is new construction," he said, "but it still retains character. That's very appealing to me." Mr. Heinz said the idea of buying in the Jersey City arts district as it begins to flower was also appealing.
"It's like buying into TriBeCa when it was starting to happen as a place for artists, and getting in on the excitement of that," said Mr. Heinz, who currently rents an apartment in Jersey City.
Jersey City already has the greatest concentration of artists living within its boundaries of any municipality in New Jersey, according to a study by the Urban Land Institute. The Powerhouse neighborhood, named for a gorgeous but decrepit turn-of-the-century power plant building that is a candidate for restoration, has a particular history with artists and their admirers.
Even before the idea of a formal arts district surfaced about a decade ago, many artists found havens in the gritty warehouse district at the edge of Jersey City's downtown. A group called ProArts has held an annual tour there for years, putting works on display in vacant buildings.
In Orange, the development has centered on the old industrial area too. The Valley Arts District is planned for the neighborhood straddling the city's border with West Orange. Though that area has no history with artists, developers and city officials are certain that they will flock to a neighborhood of converted factory buildings — and that people who are "birds of a feather" with the artists will, too.
Patrick Morrissy of Hands, a nonprofit development company that has been working to revitalize neighborhoods in Orange and East Orange for a dozen years, said plans call for creating 80 to 100 live-work spaces for artists that will remain moderately priced. Hands plans to create a total of about 700 loft condominiums in a number of old hat factory structures for the Valley Arts District.
The ratio of affordable arts space to market-rate lofts may seem a little low, Mr. Morrissy said. "But the truth is you don't have to have too many artists to make other people want to be there," he said.
Mr. Morrissy said he believed that creating an arts district could accomplish many goals for the economically depressed city: "revive businesses, beautify a neighborhood, expand recreational opportunities, create careers and attract people back into Orange."
He added that it could improve academic achievement, too. "We know that for kids who are really into the arts, their academic achievement is generally higher. If little Johnny plays violin, he does better at math. So, we are really looking to reach those goals, not just to bring in people to sip chardonnay and look at some paintings."
Mr. Morrissy said that a recent grant from the Wachovia Regional Foundation was being used to finance community arts programs — artists working with schoolchildren, for example — but that work had not yet begun on the buildings.
^^Meanwhile, in Jersey City, the Fields Group is already planning a second major project on Morgan Street, to be called the Hudson. An existing packing warehouse will be renovated to create a 400-seat theater, and a new 260-unit condominium building will be adjacent to it, with shop space at street level and a pool and sundeck on the roof.
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