The city’s Zoning Commission met Monday evening to set up the final steps for approval of the process. Unlike past hearings, there was not a large crowd.

In packed hearings in February, artists and their supporters testified in strong opposition to the development and talked of Union Arts’ importance in D.C.’s artistic community. Union Arts is home to arts studios, music rehearsal and performance spaces, and the vintage shop Nomad Yard Collectiv.

The artists, who said between 70 and 100 people use the space, claimed they were being displaced. The building’s former owner said the artists’ current situation was financially untenable.

The hearings focused on whether to approve a change from C-M-1 to C-3-C zoning designation, allowing developers to build the planned 11-story hotel, which could have as many as 178 rooms. D.B. Lee Development Construction and Brook Rose Development acquired the building in June 2015.

On Monday, the commission voted to take “proposed action” on the project. The next step is to take “final action,” which D.B. Lee’s president, Dennis Lee, thinks could happen in July or September. With the dispute with the tenants resolved, the commissioners’ main concern was a technicality involving a minimum required square footage of the lot.

Many of the artists’ demands were things that the commission had “no jurisdiction” over, commission Chairman Anthony Hood said.

“I think it’s very valuable to the city and I hope we can find ways to keep the artists here,” Hood said. “But in this case I thought that the party in opposition … was asking for something that I just don’t see.”

Settlement and endgame

The organized opposition paid off, at least financially. Artists and their lawyer negotiated a settlement with the developers to withdraw their opposition in turn for getting relocation money.

In a document dated May 12, the representative of the Artists Union, Chris Otten, rescinds “411 Artists Union status as a party in opposition” to the project.

Earlier this year developers wanted the artists to vacate by September 2016, but that has been extended to April 2017. Nomad Yard owner Desirée Venn Frederic says occupants are paying increased rent in turn for an extended stay.

A document from the developer’s attorney submitted on May 18 outlines terms of a settlement agreement from early May. Developers agree to “relocation assistance” to tenants in the amount of $2 per square foot of their studio space. The document lists eight separate units covered under the agreement, of varying square footage between 440 and 5,000. Some of these units are shared by multiple people. The developer also agrees to make “reasonable good faith efforts” to help artists find new studio space and manage construction of a new space “at no cost to the Artists.” Other takeaways for the artists include assistance with grant education and a seat on the board of directors of the new hotel’s arts program. Artists agree to not oppose the project.

Many of the artists who have been highly involved in organizing opposition — including Frederic, Luke Stewart, Graham Boyle and Micheline Klagsbrun — signed the agreement themselves or by proxy.

“I’m satisfied in the sense that we’re now able to redirect our energy and our focus to identifying a more permanent home,” Frederic says. She says so far she has not had much luck finding a new space for Nomad Yard.

But Frederic says the relationship between the artists and the developers has improved in the last two or three months. “They are trying to work with us at this point, and I have to acknowledge that,” she says. After the outpouring of support at hearings earlier this year, “they truly understand the value that we present.”

D.B. Lee president Dennis Lee has emphasized the uniqueness of the new arts-focused hotel, and has said developers need artists to lend the project artistic “authenticity.”

The new program

D.B. Lee outlined the hotel’s proposed arts program in a “proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law,” submitted May 31. Lee says his group wrote the 43-page document with the intention that the Zoning Commission would mostly adopt it. He says the commission typically doesn’t want to take the time to write it itself.

The draft document details, for the hotel arts program: a minimum 20-year commitment; 544 square feet of classroom space; 14,700 square feet of exhibition space, a requirement for 40 percent of “arts programming” members to be Ward 5 residents with free or discounted membership; 2,600 square feet of artist studio space rented at $20 a square foot; and 800 square feet of artist studio and retail space rented at $40 a square foot.

With the settlement agreement, Lee writes he that he is “now hopeful that we can go back to work on a truthful pursuit of keeping and building a sustainable art culture in our city. There are a lot of movements to do that and they are very positive.”

But as they have been saying for months, artists still think the city is not paying attention to their needs in general. That’s why, some said, their protests were more against what they see as the city’s pro-development policies, rather than against this particular project.

Frederic says artists are “asking that the city live up to its word, found in numerous planning documents that they’ve written, expressing how important the creative and cultural economy is to the vibrancy of the District of Columbia.”

But that didn’t stop artists who oppose any development from filling a zoning commission hearing Tuesday, in the second public demonstration against the project, which proposes to turn the creative space into a boutique hotel with arts studios.

Over more than four hours, artists and allies spoke of the building at 411 New York Ave. NE as a “haven” for culture in Washington, unmatched anywhere else in the city.

“I think [the development is] a big step backwards,” said Julia Bloom, a visual artist who said she has worked in the building for nine years.

The facility’s new owners, developers D.B. Lee Development, Inc. Construction and Brook Rose Development, LLC, say they’ve tweaked their blueprints in response to protests, expanding space for arts and music in the planned hotel. But they claim to need a zoning change to make that happen. Without it, developers say, they can’t expand the building to 11 stories, and that limits the amount of space they can dedicate to artists and musicians.

Union Arts tenant Desirée Venn Frederic at Tuesday night’s demonstration (James Doubek/WAMU)

Since the first zoning hearing Feb. 1, developers and Union Arts tenants have convened twice with the hope of finding common ground. At meetings on Feb. 8 and 16, tenants presented “an alternative plan that focused on the preservation of the building in its current state,” says Shannon Lewthwaite, a partner in Nomad Yard Collectiv, a vintage shop in the building. Lewthwaite says more work needs to be done on their proposal, but it would “essentially revitaliz[e] it to better utilize the space and make it more financially viable, with all of the current tenants in mind.”

Lewthwaite says the developers seemed receptive, but skeptical of the plan’s financial viability.

Meanwhile, developers say they made changes to the initial plans after hearing artists’ concerns. Dennis Lee, president of D.B. Lee Development, says artists were particularly worried about initial plans that would not have given artists enough privacy and ran the risk of pitting musicians against noise-averse hotel guests.

New plans dated Feb. 18 add three arts studios with an additional 2,000 square feet of studio space, and studios have been repositioned to add privacy, Lee says. They also add a soundproofed music studio on the first floor lower level, “isolated from the rest of the hotel rooms where guests would be sleeping.”

A proposal not included on drawings — but discussed between parties — involves giving artists complete control of the hotel’s third floor, with 11,000 square feet of space. However, artists would be responsible for raising $1 million to sign a lease on the space.

One matter of contention has been the total square footage of arts space in the building. Current tenants put that number at about 30,000 square feet, and have said developers would only dedicate 3,000 square feet to art studio space. But Lee says it’s important to include exhibition and gallery space in that number. If exhibition and gallery space are included, revised plans put the new figure at 19,090 square feet for art and music. Artist studio space alone would total 3,443 square feet and the music studio would be 746 square feet.

“We’ve tried to improve [the plan] as best we can within our own confines,” Lee says.

Artists say Union Arts’ planned redevelopment is part of a larger gentrification wave that has displaced creatives and low-income residents in general. But in this instance, developers are trying to incorporate arts into the new vision.

Lee says developers became attracted to the idea of an arts hotel because of the building’s proximity to culinary hub Union Market.

“It was sort of the vibe at Union Market and what was happening in the building that gave us that influence,” Lee says. He says adding an arts program to the hotel offers him no economic incentive, because the arts space would be subsidized by developers.

Faced with opposition from Union Arts tenants on social media, Lee said Tuesday he’s become frustrated by what he considers misinformation.

(James Doubek/WAMU)

Tenants have organized letter-writing campaigns to city government and testified in support of Union Arts’ importance in their lives. But having the building continue in its current capacity may not be economically viable. The building’s previous owner said tenants weren’t paying enough in rent to cover even the cost of property taxes.

Gaje Jones, who runs MOUSAi House, an art and music space within Union Arts, admits as much. But he says it’s possible to make art spaces like Union Arts financially sound, perhaps through an education program.

“Just adding up all the years of how many people in here have taught, how many artists we have in here, it’s over 1,000 years of intellectual property that this building has,” Jones says, “and that is something that is marketable.”

But the specific question for the zoning board is whether to rezone the building to allow the expansion developers want.

“We could go in there and we could build a hotel right now,” Lee says.

The developer contends that those who oppose rezoning are working against themselves.

“Without the zoning enhancement, there’s no economic viability for this arts program being in that building. You need that zoning enhancement to be able to provide this subsidized arts space,” Lee says. He adds that other developers may have chosen to forgo the arts entirely. Lee wouldn’t speculate when asked what he would do if the zoning commission denied the application.

Many of Union Arts’ tenants remain undeterred.

“We do believe that it’s realistic for them to keep the space as it is, given the historical significance of the building,” Lewthwaite says. She says some tenants want to bring in private partners to continue the building’s use in its current form, or hope for the city government to step in and form a public-private partnership with developers.

Most of the 32 artists and supporters who testified Tuesday evening emphasized their strong opposition to the hotel project. But Mike Abrams, who founded Union Arts in 2013, struck a diplomatic note in his testimony.

“I saw a tremendous willingness by D.B. Lee and Brook Rose to try and do something here. They went from not having any studios, to putting in studios, putting in gallery space, putting in drawing areas, meeting rooms, [a] classroom area,” Abrams said.

“I don’t really think they’re bad guys. I never thought they were bad guys,” says Jones. “Our fight’s not actually with these developers. Our fight’s really with the city. Because when it comes down to it, the city’s the one responsible for the continuous displacement of the art class.”

Seven people have signed up to continue public testimony March 16.

D.C. punk band Priests will headline a benefit show Friday at 411 New York Ave. NE, the location of the arts facility slated to become a boutique hotel. Also on the bill are experimental duo Janel and Anthony, synthesizer musician Adriana-Lucia Cotes and Ian Svenonius‘ solo project, Escape-ism.

The building on New York Avenue has operated under the name Union Arts since 2013, serving as a work and practice space for musicians and artists. Before that, it was used regularly for underground concerts and dance parties. But property taxes on the building became too high for the previous owners, and they sold the property last summer.

D.B. Lee Development, Inc. Construction and Brook Rose Development, LLC, purchased Union Arts in June 2015. They later announced plans to transform 411 New York Ave. NE into a high-end hotel with eight studios and other art spaces managed by the nonprofit CulturalDC. But up to 100 artists use the building on a rotating basis, according to supporters, and the new configuration is likely to push many of them out.

Supporters of Union Arts packed a zoning commission hearing Feb. 1. Many offered testimony about the scarcity of affordable arts space in D.C., which has rapidly gentrified in the last 15 years.

Janel Leppin of Janel and Anthony says the outpouring of support inspired her, and she decided to organize a show to bring attention to the situation.

“More than anything,” Leppin says, she wanted to “raise awareness for the need for spaces for artists in D.C.”

A flyer for Friday’s Union Arts benefit show

Leppin has performed at Union Arts numerous times. She says when choosing bands for the benefit concert, she picked acts who have been involved in the space in some way.

Priests fit that description. The band’s members have set up shows at Union Arts and two of them testified Feb. 1 on the importance of Union Arts to local music.

“It’s definitely a hub of music activity,” says Priests singer Katie Alice Greer in an interview. “It is a unique building right now in D.C. in certain ways. There aren’t a whole lot of other spaces left that are not private homes or businesses. … There’s not a lot of middle-ground spaces where people are actively making art and putting on shows for any band that they think is cool and interesting — in a way that’s not really driven by alcohol sales.”

But saving the building as it is now may not be feasible. According to Gail Harris, managing member of the LLC that sold Union Arts last year, the rent paid by artists did not cover the building’s property taxes. The new owners have asked the current tenants to vacate by Sept. 1. (Though at the hearing, D.B. Lee President Dennis Lee said that date may be flexible.)

CulturalDC says the new studios will accommodate “up to 20-plus artists” who can apply in an open call. Developers point out that musicians will also be considered for art spaces.

But current tenants are still challenging the redevelopment plans. Leppin says proceeds from Friday’s show will help the building’s artists with “whatever cost[s] they are faced with.” She later writes in an email that funds should go to help artists who are trying to find new studio space.

“We will raise the money to help Union Arts continue its work as an arts venue and basically a community center for the public — for as long as it can,” Leppin writes.

Desirée Venn Frederic, founder of vintage shop Nomad Yard Collectiv, which operates out of Union Arts, says that means lawyer’s fees. “In our current fight we acknowledge we need legal support and legal guidance,” she says.

The number of people who signed up to give public testimony Feb. 1 was so great that a second zoning commission hearing was scheduled for Feb. 23. Leppin says she hopes Friday’s show sparks enough interest to overwhelm that hearing, too.

The benefit concert for Union Arts takes place Feb. 19 at 411 New York Ave. NE. 8:30 p.m.

Top image: Protestors at a Feb. 1 zoning commission hearing on the planned redevelopment of Union Arts.

The building known as Union Arts is being converted into a boutique hotel, and all of its occupants — including artists, musicians and various small companies — must vacate by Sept. 1.

Demonstrators outside the D.C. Zoning Office Monday night (James Doubek/WAMU)

The four-story structure at 411 New York Ave. NE has served as a practice space, studio and venue for musicians and artists since 2013. Under previous management, it regularly hosted all-night events under the name Warehouse Loft. Because of its location in a sparsely populated manufacturing district, Union Arts offers a perk that’s hard to come by in D.C.: lax noise restrictions.

Artists say losing Union Arts deals a blow to a creative community already diminished by widespread gentrification. “The content and culture that comes out of this space is something that happens nowhere else in the city,” says Graham Boyle, one of the founders of 2B Artist Studios in the building.

Luke Stewart, who co-founded Union Arts and manages its studios, estimates that between 70 and 100 artists use the spaces on New York Avenue, but he says they move in and out frequently. (Disclosure: Stewart and I previously worked together.) Five rooms in the building are used for bands to practice, he says, and other tenants have included vintage shop Nomad Yard, a motorcycle repair shop, a church, a furniture company, a bikeshare company and a contracting company.

In June 2015, the building was sold for $7 million to 411 New York Avenue Holdings, LLC, which comprises D.B. Lee Development, Inc. Construction and Brook Rose Development, LLC. The two developers submitted a joint application to the D.C. zoning commission last summer, outlining plans to redevelop the site as an 11-story hotel with up to 178 rooms.

Planners hope to create a “high end, unique boutique hotel option” that will “provide desperately needed art studio and gallery space for local residents and students of Gallaudet University,” according to the proposal. A restaurant is planned for the ground floor, with a combined restaurant and gallery space on the 11th floor, as well as a rooftop pool and bar. Developers say it will create between 75 and 100 new jobs and, ideally, spur more development in the area.

“It supports the city’s comprehensive plan with the development in the Union Market area,” says Dennis Lee, president of D.B. Lee Development. Lee says food and beverage options that are open to the public will help make the facility more of a “community hotel.” He expects it will serve as a “strong bridge” between the adjacent neighborhoods of Ivy City, Union Market, Gallaudet University and NoMa.

Given the building’s history as an arts space, developers have tried to heavily incorporate the arts into the hotel project. Their plans call for eight art studios, an art classroom, rooftop gallery spaces, a sculpture terrace and “art displays throughout.” CulturalDC, the nonprofit and consulting group that owns Flashpoint Gallery and the Source theater, will partner with the developers to manage the arts components of the building. The group says the second and 11th floors will mostly be dedicated to artistic use.

Lee says the building’s planned arts spaces will help create “a center for all arts to come together.” He adds, “It’s a pretty unique program that we’ve put together. We don’t think there’s anything like it in the whole country.”

A new website devoted to the project details plans for the arts studios. A maximum of 20 artists will get access to them, and their cost will be subsidized up to 60 percent. Lee says subsidies could put the cost at $20 per square foot in some areas. There will be an open call for studio tenants, and CulturalDC will facilitate a panel of five to seven “artists, community members, local business owners” and others to make selections. Every type of artist will be considered, including musicians, says CulturalDC’s communications manager, John Richards.

Lee adds that existing artist residents in the building will be given some preference over other applicants. He also cites different numbers than Stewart, saying the actual number of artists who pay to be in the current building is fewer than 30. He says the estimate of 100 occupants includes visitors and contributors.

Speaking before the zoning commission Monday, many artists said they see the project as displacing art rather than strengthening it. Developers say 3,000 square feet of the new building will be dedicated to art, but artists say that’s not enough.

Musicians especially are nervous about the hotel project, and some say they will have no place in the plan, despite assurances.

“Playing music is very loud, and it’s going to be very disruptive to hotel guests, so musicians will definitely be pushed out of this,” said Katie Alice Greer of the band Priests, speaking before the zoning commission Monday. “There really aren’t any other places like this,” she said.

A crowded room during Monday night’s hearing on Union Arts (James Doubek/WAMU)

But while artists are riled up about Union Arts’ demise, the new owners’ commitment to maintaining some art studio space may have been the least-bad outcome for 411 New York Ave. NE.

The building had been on the market for more than three years, says Gail Harris, the managing member of the LLC that owned the building until last summer. She says the cost of property taxes had become unsustainable.

“Everyone was paying way under market rate for rent,” Harris says. The rent paid by tenants, she adds, could not cover $70,000 in annual property taxes. The Harris family’s LLC purchased the building for just above $1 million in 2007, public records show.

Stewart says Harris was “very, very supportive” of the music and art going on in the building, but it became “a headache for her.”

Mike Abrams, an artist who founded Union Arts in 2013, says the building’s fortunes could be worse. He suggests that the hybrid arts/hotel space may become a model for other developers.

“At least they are considering what they are doing,” Abrams says. “Yes, they are displacing an entire studio building, and they bought the building and that’s their right to do what they want. So to be able to include artists as part of their project, I think that’s a really tremendous first step, to be able to get other developers to see that, to see how it works, see that it can be successful.”

But Abrams expresses concern about the big picture. He says he’d like to see D.C. take a more serious approach to creating live and work spaces for artists, possibly with city-owned property.

“For photographers, for sculptors, for painters, for musicians, for all types of creatives,” Abrams says. “If you share one building, you start to really create a dynamic center, which is what’s missing in D.C.”

Artists attributed the big turnout Monday night to general anxieties about the city’s future.

“Our fight today is not necessarily with the developers,” said Gaje Jones, who runs MOUSAi House, an art and music space within Union Arts. “Our fight today is actually with the city. Because the city, in the planning department, are actually the ones who are allowing these companies to come in and to take over places like Union Arts.”

Graham Boyle added, “It’s very symbolic of the bigger issue of gentrification that’s happening in the city.”

The zoning commission will have another public hearing on the project Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m.

Moderated by Vox Executive Editor Matt Yglesias (who’s written about D.C.‘s economic disincentives for artists), it found performer and writer Holly Bass, ex-Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, and Transformer gallery co-founder Victoria Reis expressing familiar concerns about creativity’s chances in gentrifying D.C.

“As we go through the process of bulldozing the city, let’s just leave a little bit for the artists,” Canty said.

Every time another alternative art space closes, it seems to confirm that small plates have supplanted underground arts in this town. But while it’s clear that development and rising property values have deeply impacted the arts community, DIY venues have always come and gone in D.C. Sometimes, gentrification is to blame. Other times, it’s a different story.

Take the late Bobby Fisher Memorial Building, which closed when its tenants reportedly couldn’t renegotiate a lease with their landlord. Basement spot Subterranean A stopped doing shows when its residents decided to move on or move out. Casa Fiesta’s management curbed its punk and metal shows, saying loud music drove away customers.

Meanwhile, D.C. DIY has sprouted branches. The ethos of “DIT” (Do It Together)—a more community-focused take on DIY—is catching on here, evident in the Brightest Young Things column written by Paperhaus’ Alex Tebeleff, in addition to plans for the first In It Together Festival. Local alternative music spaces continue to open. Some of them crop up in people’s houses (like The Dougout and Ft. Loko)—but more “official” alternative spaces exist here, too.

How are they doing, and what are they doing right?

To find out, I talked to the people behind two of those spaces, Union Arts and Back Alley Theater.

Union Arts
Located inside a gray, blocky building on New York Avenue NE, Union Arts has become one of the busiest DIY venues in the city. Its tenants hope it remains that way for a while—even though the building it occupies may be sold soon.

As reported by Washington City Paper last year, after artist hangout Gold Leaf Studios (formerly The Hosiery) shut down in 2012, a core group of members—including owner Mike Abrams—founded Union Arts in the old Warehouse Loft space at 411 New York Ave. NE. Since then, it’s offered relatively affordable studios and concert space to its renters. Its events are now run mostly by musician Luke Stewart, who says that shows are somewhat of a bonus for the space.

“Even though we have shows here, that’s not our primary focus,” he says.

Union Arts hosts events almost every week, but the shows don’t have to make money. The space is paid for by the artists who rent studios there.

Stewart values the diverse artistic output that Union Arts facilitates. Studio members are in charge of booking or approving events, resulting in a wide range of shows, from experimental jazz to hardcore punk to sufi and ambient music. Studio members hold biweekly meetings and maintain email threads about shows and an internal event calendar. Union Arts is also on its way to becoming a nonprofit, he says.

“The way to be sustainable is to organize, get your [act] together,” said Stewart. “When you start there, you can talk about how to sustain. Otherwise you’re flying blind.”

There’s an element of luck here, too. Unlike spaces in more residential areas, Union Arts dwells in a warehouse district, where gentrification and noise-averse neighbors don’t pose a constant threat. The building rests in a commercial and light manufacturing zone. (Union Arts is also known as Union Arts & Manufacturing.)

But 411 New York Ave. NE has been on the market for more than two years now, says its owner, Gail Harris. (Asking price: $7.5 million.) A contract is now being negotiated with a potential buyer, whom Harris says intends to maintain the building as it is, at least in the short term.

Back Alley Theater
Union Arts isn’t the only large D.C. DIY space that doesn’t double as a living room. Back Alley Theater occupies a wide basement of a resident-owned apartment building on Kennedy Street NW in Brightwood. It’s operated by Amanda Huron and Layne Garrett, longtime D.C. musicians and members of the experimental band Weed Tree.

Back Alley Theater goes back decades, according to a history on its website. First a theater company, it started out of a house in Mt. Pleasant in 1967 and later bounced around: to St. Stephen’s Church on Newton Street NW, then Capitol Hill, then finally to Kennedy Street in 1969. Over 20 years there, it staged politically charged plays by Amiri Baraka and others, but quieted down for nearly two decades. Members of the building’s Madison Terrace Cooperative revived the space as an events center a few years ago.

Huron says residents have been excited to have arts events in the building again, and they haven’t complained about noise from concerts and other happenings in the space. She ensured that the space could operate legitimately, obtaining a certificate of occupancy and a capacity placard from the District.

“People are obsessive about wanting a space,” Huron says. “But when you get that space, there’s a [lot] of work that goes into maintaining it.”

The night after the arts panel at MLK Library, Back Alley Theater is getting ready to host a lineup of avant-garde and jazz artists. Garrett and Huron are prepping. Residents come down to greet Huron while Garrett arranges chairs and offers to set up the P.A. The equipment and furniture were purchased with money from the D.C. Diversity Fund.

Huron hangs up a modest sign outside the door with the venue’s name. It’s not glamorous, but that’s never been the point of putting on these shows.

Her and Garrett’s longtime involvement in D.C.’s experimental-music scene might afford them a more optimistic outlook on DIY spaces. Artists who stick around here long enough would begin to see a pattern: when spaces close, there’s a good chance another one is right around the corner.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia for the old days, which can get fetishized,” says Huron. “Some spaces have to die for other spaces to live.”