{"id":19385,"date":"2021-05-14T22:19:53","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T02:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=19385"},"modified":"2021-05-17T11:03:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T15:03:04","slug":"somerville-armory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2021\/05\/14\/somerville-armory\/","title":{"rendered":"Somerville Approves $5M Purchase Of Armory To Maintain It As Arts Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Somerville moved forward with a plan to acquire the Somerville Armory building at 191 Highland Ave. and \u201cpreserve the facility for arts uses\u201d with an unanimous vote of approval from the City Council on May 13<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city plans to acquire the arts center property by eminent domain, with a payment of $5 million to the property\u2019s owner, Highland Armory Realty Trust, whose principals include members of the Sater family, who also own the Middle East nightclub complex in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

The Center for Arts at the Armory<\/a> debuted in 2008. The building was constructed as a home for the the Somerville Light Infantry of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia by George Moore in 1903, according to the center<\/a>. It subsequently housed the Massachusetts National Guard. But it sat largely unused for about 25 years until the Commonwealth of Massachusetts opted to sell the 33,000-plus-square-foot building in 2004 to the Saters for $2.6 million, who got a special permit from the city to turn it into an arts facility. The Center for Arts at the Armory, a tenant in the building, now hosts music, dance, theater, literary arts, visual arts, film, circus, comedy, community markets, and youth education programs.<\/p>\n

Marc Levy reported in Cambridge Day<\/a> on May 6: The Sater “family has recently signaled it is looking at voiding the special permit and ending the arts use by instead filling the armory\u2019s giant main hall with a tech company or small-scale manufacturer, according to an April report by George Proakis, executive director of community development for Somerville. The change in use would oust the nonprofit arts organizations that lease space in the building.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe building has however been operating under a financial model that is not sustainable and the pandemic has intensified the financial strain,\u201d according to the city’s May 14 announcement. \u201cBy acquiring the property, the city will stabilize the financial situation and develop a financially sustainable operating model that will reduce revenue pressure on arts activity, and allow the building to remain as a community arts center.\u201d The purchase will \u201ccreate needed permanently affordable arts space that will both support local arts and artists during the pandemic recovery as well as strengthen arts activity for the long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dustin<\/a>
Dustin Taksar\u2019s natural full beard is reviewed by the judges at”BeardFest” at the Somerville Armory, 2012. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur city is proud of its commitment to its arts community and this is a chance for us to make a tangible investment in a permanent public space for arts activities,\u201d Mayor Joe Curtatone said in the city’s announcement. \u201cWe\u2019ll be taking a historic building in the center of our city and making sure it is preserved as a civic institution. Projects like this are how we make sure the arts thrive in Somerville and remain accessible to all residents. It\u2019s a practical investment in an essential portion of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that city leaders have approved bond spending for the building, the city can move forward with the eminent domain filing. The city must assume control of the property within 30 days of the May 13 vote, according to the city\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, nature, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2021 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Somerville<\/a>
Somerville Armory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Somerville moved forward with a plan to acquire the Somerville Armory building at 191 Highland Ave. and \u201cpreserve the facility for arts uses\u201d with an unanimous vote of approval from the City Council on May 13. The city plans to acquire the arts center property by eminent domain, with a payment of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[856,193,26,855],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19385"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19435,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19385\/revisions\/19435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}