Mayor Edwin M. Lee and District Six Supervisor Jane Kim joined newly formed nonprofit Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) to announce the purchase of two arts building in the Central Market and the Tenderloin.
The CAST purchase will allow the Luggage Store Gallery owners to maintain occupancy of their building and ultimately to assume full ownership, which was at risk of sale due to private investors, and will enable the Luggage Store Gallery’s subtenant Hospitality House Community Art Program to sign a long term lease. CAST also announced the purchase of the underutilized former adult theater at 80 Turk Street in the Tenderloin, one block off Market, and CounterPULSE, a cornerstone of the Bay Area performing arts scene now located South of Market in a building it rents, will begin fundraising to assume ownership of the 80 Turk Street building and move its multi-use performing arts facility in early 2015.
“A major transformation is underway on Central Market, and arts are central to that revitalization,” said Mayor Lee. “Long-time neighborhood institutions like CounterPULSE and The Luggage Store not only anchor the growing arts district but maintain the fabric of creative nonprofit organizations that characterize Central Market. Creative endeavors like CAST propel the City’s efforts to enhance the role of arts organizations in the neighborhood while ensuring the longevity of these important institutions.”
CAST was recently formed by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and the Community Vision (Community Vision) to support the City’s efforts to expand and provide long-term stability to arts groups in Central Market and the Tenderloin as part of the Central Market Economic Strategy. The Kenneth Rainin Foundation committed $5 million over five years as seed funding to pilot their program for stabilizing space for community arts organizations in the Central Market area. The pilot program includes the acquisition of two arts facilities sites in Central Market and the Tenderloin
