Beyond the Transaction: The Long Game of Cultural Space

As excited as we were to be featured by the New York Times, we felt compelled to expand the narrative and respond to the many questions and comments that followed.  When work like ours makes the news, it can look like a single deal closed at the right moment. In reality, that moment represents years of quiet, complicated groundwork. We want to share more of that fuller picture.

Beyond the Deal

The purchase itself is often the most straightforward part of what we do. The harder, less visible work comes before and after: building trust with artists and cultural organizations, preparing boards to take on long-term commitments, structuring financing, negotiating terms, and making sure a building will actually serve its mission for decades to come.

We work in a growing field of mission-driven and problem-solving wizards, who blend finance, design, organization, and strategy.  Most projects take 12-18 months at minimum, and often several years. We are playing the long game. At a time when cities like San Francisco are eager to “bounce back” post-pandemic, it’s important to remember that meaningful change in the built environment is slow. We are part of that long-term regrowth.

Our work is often framed as emergency intervention, where stepping in to keep an organization or artist studios anchored in place is the priority. While we often step in when spaces are at risk, we are not a rapid-response fund with cash sitting on the sidelines.  What we offer instead is a deep knowledge of how artists and nonprofit cultural organizations actually function, and what kind of spaces help them sustain their livelihoods. We understand how space designed specifically for artists–whether for living or production–is different from traditional designs. We can then support design, permitting, project management of construction and myriad vendors in support of artists and cultural partners. We are a comprehensive shop and are in nearly 50 active conversations that require similar levels of engagement and attention. They are in different phases of readiness and this allows us to distribute our capacity accordingly.

Following Artists’ Lead & Finding Community

We’re often asked, how do we choose where we work and who we partner with? We go where we are invited, where artists and cultural leaders are already organizing and asking for partnership. Cultural displacement is not limited to big cities. Our purchase of the East Street School in Trinidad, CO is one example of responding to local invitation in a strong community of artists who found opportunity in a more rural region between the more metropolitan areas of Denver and Santa Fe.

Although the lack of affordable space for artists remains a global challenge in cities of all sizes, what’s especially exciting 13 years into this work is that we are no longer alone in addressing it. Kudos to Artist Space Trust for being featured in the article. Their work is worthy of recognition and their ambitions should be celebrated. I want to recognize a few others, too. In the past month, we’ve spoken with groups as varied as cSpace in Calgary, Rally Austin in Texas, Cultural Space Agency in Seattle, California for the Arts, and Colorado Educational & Cultural Facilities Authority. There are dozens more conversations that have taken place, and we are grateful for the trust across the groups being forged through dead-ends and failures that are more frequent than publicly noted moments of success.

In May of 2025, there was a global convening of cultural land trusts in the Bay Area and we suddenly found ourselves amongst peers where we shared a common language and similar dreams of affordable space. It was a meaningful experience for everyone to realize we were not alone. They understood the work that consumed 90% of our time and effort was not transactional but relational. As much as real estate is driven by opportunity, our work is driven by the speed of trust. CAST has regularly shared that the first ten years were committed to deep listening. This was intentional and helped to establish real trust with artists and cultural organizations that accelerated the past few years of activity for CAST.

What’s In a Name

Despite CAST’s name, we are not a trust and have yet to structure an acquisition as a conventional land trust. It is not because we don’t believe in land trusts. They can be very effective and strategic and our very founding was inspired by its principles. It has more to do with our focus on commercial properties and how we acquire properties, working in close partnership with our arts tenants. CAST instead has used deed restrictions to assure that transfer of ownership is limited to values and mission-aligned entities so these properties can remain permanent arts and cultural assets for the neighborhood. We have also maintained equity in properties to assure that we can veto a quick flip or sale of a property to a developer. Again, these decisions and negotiating them with artists and cultural institutions can be enormously challenging and time-consuming.

Our work and focus is not limited to known cities and urban centers alone. While we believe that arts and culture can reinvent and invigorate dormant downtowns and vacant spaces, CAST’s activity in various communities is driven by myriad factors: 

1. We wrap buildings around programs and mission, and we do not engage in speculative acquisitions.

We partner prior to acquisition so that the property is anchored by a clear programming vision and established body of work. 

2. We must acquire an asset below market value to assure that we can reset the floor of affordability.

This is market agnostic but larger cities tend to have a wider inventory. Affordability and the promise to keep space affordable is a very real challenge and in some instances, CAST has had to subsidize spaces and assume significant losses. These recent lessons in a depreciated market have alerted us to hold fast to the rule of buying at wholesale prices. 

3. Activating and tenanting spaces is not a linear process when you are also trying to build a supportive creative ecosystem with intention and complementary synergies.

Because we have a longer history in more established cities, it has been easier for us to meet this requirement in places like the Bay Area where our collective networks run wider and deeper. That said, the purchase of the East Street School in Trinidad, CO was both well below market and benefited from capital investments by the seller. It also came fully tenanted and that helped allay our concerns about building a local artist pipeline based on the timeline of the acquisition and not as an organic process.

4. We believe that places to work, produce, and showcase are not enough to assure that artists and the arts can stay in place.

We are moving to establish new criteria and strategies to introduce affordable artist housing. CAST is committed to doing this as a complement to traditional affordable housing, without competing for the same public funds or development at scale already being practiced.

5. We need unicorns in communities who can introduce us to the local artist community and all the hyperlocal facets within each new locale.

Our expansion into other regions is only effective if we can partner with those who are already organizing for solutions and can establish proximity with the community so that CAST can begin to work with immediacy once invited in.

The Long Game

In no small part, real estate is complicated not only because it represents a steep learning curve, but because it is a generational commitment that is intended to outlast the leadership and board endorsing and underwriting the process undertaken to realize ownership. From the distinction between property and asset management, to confusion about why some scenarios still require paying rent in addition to assuming loan payments, to how to establish an offering price for a building and whether a building aligns with aspirations are just some of the conversations that take time to navigate. Many organizations are unfamiliar with debt, financing options and the rigors of underwriting. Layer this with scenarios in which equity is shared between multiple partners or tax incentives are layered in, and it can feel very removed from operations and mission. For these reasons, it is common for CAST to recommend alternatives to ownership and to discourage risky models that are unproven. Buildings require active stewardship and this can quickly feel overwhelming.

Finally, while community ownership is a core goal we strive towards, it is not always our priority outcome. Sustained affordability is our priority. That has allowed us to expand our portfolio to include long-term leases and move towards developing national infrastructure through an asset management service that is being established to advocate for and focus on the sustainability of physical space. 

Space is where memories are created and in many cases, where memories are held. Arts spaces in particular are unique in their ability to create community, build understanding, connect, and heal. Our spaces are not just for artists or arts groups–they also serve cultural organizations, community advocates, and creative entrepreneurs. Investing in this kind of infrastructure is foundational in strengthening our creative ecosystems. If we want thriving communities tomorrow, we have to protect and build the spaces that sustain them today.