The developers are up front with the tenants about the short-term nature of their leases.
"It was always straightforward," said Kathleen Gilrain, the executive director of Smack Mellon. "He doesn't spring stuff on us. Buildings are developed all over New York City, and those landlords don't give any space away."
When Two Trees converted 70 Washington St into condos, it offered almost every artist in the building below-market rates at one of its other buildings, 20 Jay St or 55 Washington St, and 80 percent accepted. "We're in a unique position to do these things because we own the whole neighborhood," Jed Walentas said.
They don't own all of it. While the Walentases say they would eventually like to move the St Ann's Warehouse organization to the brick ruins of the 19th-century Tobacco Warehouse in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, that property belongs to the state. They also want to convert the Empire Stores Warehouse, on Water Street between Dock and Main Streets, into studio and gallery space, but the state owns that too.
Affordable studios, galleries and stages are hard to come by in New York City. The Galapagos Art Space was on the verge of leaving Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for Berlin because its monthly rent had risen by US$10,000. David Walentas offered the company below-market space. "He's doing what the city should be doing," said Robert Elmes, director of Galapagos. "He's proving that it works."
The city, for its part, appreciates what Two Trees is doing.
"In an ideal world everyone would have space to work in perpetuity," said Kate Levin, the cultural affairs commissioner. "That's not the reality of New York real estate."
"He doesn't sweep in in the middle of the night and evict people," she added. "Providing space for people to make work and for people to come see it is a huge commitment."
David Walentas clearly enjoys coming to the rescue. "We've been very, very generous because I like it," he said. "I don't need the money. It's a way of putting people in my buildings."
On a recent tour of Dumbo he walked through some of these buildings, like the paint-splattered studios of the Triangle Arts Association at 20 Jay St (rent: free), where a visiting French artist, Gregory Forstner, was working on canvases of dogs in combat helmets. Walentas also showed off Smack Mellon's soaring new two-level gallery space on Plymouth Street, where huge pieces of sculpture were installed, and other tenants like the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Brooklyn Stained Glass Conservation Center and Dancing Diablo, an animation company (as well as the chocolate shop Jacques Torres and the bakery Almondine on Water Street).
"I'm very proud," Walentas said. "I tell people I've done a lot of things. They matter; they don't matter. In 100 years Dumbo will matter."
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