Art Space 'Pump Project' Latest East Austin Gentrification Victim

EAST AUSTIN, TX — Gentrification has claimed another victim in East Austin.

Officials at Pump Project Art Complex, a non-profit art space, have announced they plan to relocate after their lease wasn't renewed, Glasstire reports. Founded in 2005 as Shady Tree Studios, the space has since grown to include a gallery space and two floors of studios housing more than 40 artists and craftspeople, the website reported.

Pump Project's woes began in December 2015 after receiving a visit from a city inspector over code violations — simple things such as the need for outward opening doors, exit signs and the like — according to the report. But officials saw the writing on the wall after being relegated to paying month to month, and were averse to spending money to upgrades in a building they might not be occupying long given the piecemeal rental agreement, according to the site.

Understandable. Consider the price of one fix involving two additional bathrooms that alone would've cost some $50,000, the site noted. Despite trying to hash out a longer-term agreement, Glasstire reported that the landlord opted to put the building on the market for $2.4 million.

The organization now is seeking an alternative location, and asks for donations to its relocation fund.

In addition to the burden of moving, the gentrification-fueled development already has been financially punishing. According to Glasstire, Pump Project now will lose out on a $41,000 grant from the city’s Art Space Assistance Program aimed at mitigating Austin’s ever-soaring rents. The grant is contingent on applicants being locked into a lease of three or more years, which Pump Project clearly does not have.

The art space is the latest East Austin tenant to be forcefully displaced as a result of soaring property values in East Austin — once a working class enclave turned trendy area that has become the epicenter of commercial speculating. Since developers descended on the region in the past ten to 15 years, the landscape has changed dramatically with luxury housing for in influx of new, more affluent residents where houses once stood and high-priced, upscale restaurants where mom-and-pop shops once thrived.

And the trend shows no signs of letting up, the wave of gentrification in East Austin inexorably sweeping over an area of brisk commercial development once home to the city's working class.

>>> Read the full story at Glasstire

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