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.
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.
