By Pam Rosenblatt

It happened to Greenwich Village. It is happening to South Boston, especially Fort Point. Will it happen to Somerville?

“It” is gentrification, and it happens when low-cost, physically deteriorated neighborhoods experience physical renovation and an increase in property values, along with an influx of wealthier residents who push aside the prior residents. For years, once overlooked artist enclaves have become trendy communities with the original inhabitants eventually getting pushed out.

In Somerville, the arts community that found a place in the city in the days before skyrocketing rents has become a mainstay and has contributed to the city’s recent success and revitalization. Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone often touts the multitudes of creative artists who make Somerville home.

Jason Schupbach, director of ArtistLink, an initiative sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, works closely with the Somerville Arts Council and Curtatone’s office.
“The mayor is very proud of the fact, and says it all the time, that Somerville has the highest concentration of artists in the entire Northeast,” said Schupbach. “I think he’s right. So it would be a disappointment of the artists didn’t have a place to do their work.”

Schupbach said that operative costs do rise annually for the artists because of inflation.
“If they start to get too high, then they’re definitely going to kick out a lot of those people. You start to lose a lot of those people who don’t have a lot of extra money,” he said.

Artists can be especially hard hit by skyrocketing rents, said Schupbach. Generally, artists have middle to low incomes levels, though they are highly educated. 

“So they don’t have a lot of extra money every month to pay for their place of business, which is what they see it their place of business,” he said. “That’s where they’re running a business out of.”

It‚Äôs important for artists to have affordable space, he said. 

“And the definition of affordable depends on where the artist is on their career and how much they make in their second job and all that kind of stuff. And if it truly goes above the place where it’s just affordable, most artists will tell you in the City of Boston, you can expect to pay,” he said.

The Boston Metro Region, including Somerville, has places near a train line where the expected rent is $1 a square foot per month, which is about $12 a square foot per year.

“So, for a 300-square-foot space, you would pay $300 a month and that would include taxes and utilities and everything,” said Schupbach.

In Somerville, especially the Union Square area, two of the largest artist studio buildings are Joy Street and Vernon Street. The Joy Street Building has been newly renovated in the past five years and is geared for artists who have already established themselves professionally. Vernon Street Studios is more for the artist just out of school and beginning a career.

Joy Street Studios is a high-end building, and the rents reflect that.  Schupbach feels Joy Street Studios is the premier artist work space in New England.

‚ÄúIt‚Äôs starting to get $12 to $13 a square foot.  It, in my mind, begins to price out a lot of people in the city. The consequence of that is that you really endanger the creative community and also a piece of the economy,‚Äù he said.

ArtistLink has been working with the city of Somerville to identify new locations where people could go in such a case. 

“I think it’s definitely on the city’s radar. They haven’t been ignoring it in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Locating new space isn‚Äôt an easy task, he said. 

Joe Freeman is one of the principal owners of the Joy Street Studio property. The property has 62 artists work spaces with only two not yet rented. Both available units have a monthly rent of $500.

‚ÄúThe success (with Joy Street) is in relationship to downtown Boston.  The rents
for artists studio spaces has escalated to $45 per square foot.  We‚Äôre fortunate Somerville abuts Boston. Somerville costs about half of what the rental fees cost in Boston,‚Äù said Freeman.