StewardingSpace

We provide the “container” in which artists, cultural workers, and the community create engaging experiences.

CAST offers both short-term rentals and long-term affordable leases for artists, culture workers, and arts organizations. Our short-term rentals include affordable and accessible studios, performance and exhibition venues, as well as meeting and work spaces. Some of CAST’s real estate projects, including Warfield Commons in San Francisco’s Mid-Market district and 1721 Broadway in Oakland, offer long-term leasing or acquisition opportunities.

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Property management deals with the day-to-day operations and maintenance of a property, and can involve carrying out repairs, collecting rent, and ensuring tenant queries are met. With few exceptions, CAST works as an independent contractor of the owner, offering property management for the buildings in which it has equity.

Our team can carry out early assessment in lieu of future building acquisitions, plan occupancy transition into new spaces, and implement operating activities in new or existing buildings.

While property managers take care of the everyday activities related to the property’s physical structure and operations, asset management takes a more strategic approach. Asset management is the art of monitoring how your facility relates to the overall opportunities and issues for your facility. This includes monitoring ways to protect your facility from increasing operating and financing expenses, how to take advantage of financing tools to reduce operating expenses, and new uses of your facility to adapt to changes in the field or unexpected issues.

Our partners benefit from the lower operating costs that can be achieved from a larger portfolio of assets as well as the experience, capacity, systems and other benefits of being part of a network of arts and cultural facilities.

Good governance ideally starts before a space is acquired, offering an operating framework that outlines the roles and responsibilities of partners, investors, and community members. Strong governance addresses who’s in control by centering priorities on how the asset itself can be secured and how equity-holding entities negotiate with each other to share space that can accommodate competing views. This is often the most overlooked yet most important aspects of our work.

Even with the best plans in place, when cultural organizations step into facility ownership or long-term tenancy, there are inevitably unexpected challenges that cause dramatic shifts in demands, financially and programmatically.

CAST bridges the gap by helping groups understand what will create long-term sustainability for their space, build the right governance supports, and prepare for the realities of asset management.

In partnership with legal and financial advisors, CAST supports arts leaders and boards in building the finance, communication, and asset management skills required to operate healthy facilities.