$100,000 in Interior Work Planned for Former Gowanus Arts Haven

Pictured: 94 9th St. Image via Google Maps

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — The new owner of 94 9th St., a warehouse that formerly housed hundreds of studios and practice spaces, plans on spending $100,000 knocking down walls inside the building, as first reported by DNAinfo.

Plans approved by the city in April state that the money will be used for the "interior demolition on non-load bearing partitions throughout the building," adding that there will be "no change to use, egress or occupancy."

Developer Eli Hamway leased the property last year, DNAinfo reports, subsequently cancelling the leases of numerous artists — among them, Flood Music Studios, which had spent years renting space to local bands.

According to WNYC, about 350 visual artists alone have lost their space in the building.

Abby Subak, who heads the advocacy group Arts Gowanus, recently told the station that her community is facing increasing pressures from real estate developers.

"Artists are either spending a huge about of their time having to look for a new studio, move studios, [or] being anxious about studio space when they could be in their studios creating," she said, adding that many "are choosing to either stop their practice all together or to leave New York City."

For now, plans for 94 9th Street haven't been revealed. A representatives with Hamway's company couldn't immediately be reached for comment on Friday.