One million dollars in lease savings, 61,432 sq. ft. of commercial space put to use, 82 arts organizations served, and over 28,000 visitors to hundreds of performances, workshops, rehearsals, and events.

These are the numbers that underline a successful two years of cSPACE’s SpacePilot project, which transformed unused commercial space in the downtown and the Beltline into productive and profitable, although below-market-rate, leases for arts organizations.

In return, said cSPACE CEO Deeter Schurig, commercial landlords have received increased safety, greater property vibrancy, and a property tax exemption that comes from leasing to non-profit organizations.

“What we’re finding through space pilot is that there’s emerging groups that are wanting to run with an idea. They’re wanting to build an organization. They’re wanting to develop their kind of creative enterprises in unique ways,” he said.

“They might not want to sign a year lease, and they’re just wanting a little bit more permanence than maybe a pop-up, and a place to kind of stretch their muscles and and figure out if they have a workable idea.”

Schurig said that while their Marda Loop location was 100 per cent rented by long-term tenants, there was a need to create those shorter-term, month-by-month style locations that would serve as testing grounds.

cSPACE took on the leases for those locations, like Stampede Station and the Allied REIT atrium, and then sub-leased to arts organizations after careful vetting.

Overall, the organization has signed 35 leases over the past several years, with 23 currently active. The average vacancy for spaces before SpacePilot was 832 days—or two and a quarter years.

Arts organizations given space to grow

Among those groups that have found success with SpacePilot include improv company The Kinkonauts, pop-up art activator Alcove Centre for the Arts, and podcaster Linda Lee—who produced Being Under the Influence with TELUS STORYHIVE.

“When [Alcove Centre for the Arts] started, they had 35 pop-ups over the course of a couple years during the pandemic. After that, now they’ve been in this space 18 months, they’re, I think, way more comfortable at this point. They’ve been incubated, if you will, into the demands of what it is to operate a space, and can now probably enter into a longer-term agreement,” said Schurig.

“I don’t see much distinction between a startup in the innovation sector, as opposed to a startup in the art sector. Small business affordability is key. Having access to community, building knowledge, collaborating, all of those things are critical in terms of getting a business up and running.”

He said that the meanwhile lease, what cSPACE calls that month-to-month format, was a way to offer that middle ground between an arts organization jumping from operating out of someone’s home or virtually, into something more established.

Creative people, said Lee, will find whatever works. That included producing her podcast in her basement if she had to, but her connection to SpacePilot’s Director of Space Development Sean Dennie, put her into a place where she could have more resources through cSPACE.

“I automatically thought, ‘I’m going to do everything by myself.’ So it was a reminder to say, I need to collaborate. I need to invite people. I don’t need to do this alone,” Lee said.

“There are people out there that they’re going to make it better, because it’s about the collective. It’s about the community. It’s about the contribution of different people that have different strengths.”

cSPACE’s pilot, she said, gives creators the time to develop art skills and a safe space to gather and express ideas.

Arts are good for business, and business is getting good for the arts

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said that the transformation of two previously unoccupied spaces in the Beltline into arts hubs was good for Calgary.

“In a nutshell, more art everywhere is the best way to develop communities, develop vibrancy, but also just make it cool. We’ve found ourselves in a space where we have so many spaces throughout the city that are mostly for business, and we’re taking some of them, reclaiming them, and creating them for the public, and at the same time benefiting our business community,” he said.

“So, if everybody wins, do it again.”

He said that diversity in offerings for the public meant stronger communities and stronger businesses.

“The diversity of options on a street are what allows the businesses to be symbiotic, to be successful together—and arts in the middle of it all, if you’re running events out of [BLOX] the people will come here, and then they will go eat somewhere else. They’ll shop somewhere else. That’s an important dynamic.”

The SpacePilot project was supported by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, Calgary Arts Development, and the City of Calgary.

Among the landlords and brokers that have agreed to participate included Allied, Arrtis REIT, Brookfield Properties, CBRE, Crestpoint, and Taurus.

For more details on cSPACE, and the SpacePilot, see cspaceprojects.com/spacepilot.