3rd Ward: Still Closing Up Shop, Though Some Artists May Stay Put

by Corinna Kirsch on October 11, 2013 Newswire

A view of 3rd Ward's lobby. Courtesy Fundrise.

3rd Ward offers artists workspace, studios, and classes, and as of this morning, it looks like it’s open for business. Anyone can walk through the front door and into the lobby, which displays a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard of classes and news for its members.

But that’s just a sheen. As we reported earlier this week, 3rd Ward will be closing due to financial troubles, effective nearly immediately. That’s the bad news. Since the story broke, though, there’s been some hopeful updates for those artists wanting to stay put in their studios, on their own.

Technically, 3rd Ward has been subleasing space to artists from their own landlord, the brokerage firm 5CE. Representatives from that firm have voiced that for those artists who don’t want to move out with 3rd Ward, “studio spaces were still available, and deals might be had for 3rd Ward members.”

That’s a smidgen of hope for artists rooted firmly in Bushwick, but it doesn’t remedy the situation for some artists who have already handed over thousands of dollars to 3rd Ward for the year ahead. In some cases, that means a loss of thousands of dollars, as DNAinfo found from speaking with some of 3rd Ward’s seething members and tenants. That money, in all likelihood, won’t be returned.

5CE doesn’t have a solution for those artists, either. “[T]hat’s between 3rd Ward and them” Nigel Shamash, a broker speaking on behalf of 5CE told, again, DNAinfo.

It remains to be seen if a deal can be worked out between the brokerage firm and individual artists hoping to stay put. In the meantime, 3rd Ward continues to urge its members to move out by Tuesday, October 15th.

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