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Broke-Ass Stuart: Big Win for Black Owned Real Estate & Black Artists in Oakland

Oakstop flagship at 1721 Broadway, Oakland. Photo courtesy of Oakstop

By Alex Mak

Oakstop’s purchase of its flagship building represents a big win for art, artists, entrepreneurship, and Black real estate ownership in the Bay Area.  Oakstop not only provides very flexible rental spaces for businesses, non-profits, and artists, but they also make sure to feature the work of Black artists, using the wall space to exhibit their work and host artist-fueled events too.


The video ‘The Shape of Blackness’ below. is just one example of the dope art programming happening at different Oakstop spaces in Oakland:

Oakstop partnered with Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) on the acquisition of the building in downtown Oakland. CAST invested $2.5 million in the project, with additional lending support from Community Vision, in another move towards empowering Bay Area arts non-profits and creative entrepreneurs to own their own buildings, so that a massive portion of non-profit donations DO NOT have to go into some corporate landlord’s pockets, but rather towards securing the future of the non-profits themselves and the causes they are needed for.

CAST also organized the purchase and renovation of a beautiful multi-use art space in SF’s SOMA district recently. ‘447 Minna’ now serves as flexible rental space for arts and non-profits.

 

Purchasing large commercial real estate takes meticulous planning, fundraising, and long-term thinking.  So after years of work, this is a big ‘win’ for Oakstop, Black real estate ownership, and a Black artist-led non-profit that focus on growing the local community and entrepreneurship.  Below is more information on the purchase, the building, and the players involved via our friends at CAST.

Read the full article here

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