Batavia arts center gets city support

A real estate development firm will receive up to $125,000 from the city of Batavia to make a permanent downtown home for the Water Street Studios arts center.

The city council Monday agreed to give Batavia Enterprises $40,000 to develop the studios in a former factory at 160 S. Water St. The rest is a 10-year forgivable loan. For each year that the center has at least 16 tenants, 10 percent of the loan will be forgiven.

For each unsuccessful year, the firm has to pay 10 percent of the loan, plus one year's interest at 5 percent.

The money comes from property taxes collected in a special tax increment financing district for downtown improvement. Property taxes to government agencies were frozen in 2004, and any increase after that is earmarked for downtown redevelopment.

The money will be spent renovating the building, including installing heating and ventilation equipment required for some of the artwork. The total estimated cost is $370,000.

The studios will be run by the Batavia Artists Association, which came up with the idea a little more than a year ago. The association already has a temporary gallery and class space in a shopping center on Wilson Street.

Joi Cuartero, the studio's art director, expects to open the two-story center, including a gallery, in late spring or early summer. She said it will bring people to the downtown, whether to buy art, watch artists, or take a class.

"We have a little bit of everything," Cuartero said of the artists - cermacists, metalworkers, plastics artists, jewelers, graphic artists and more. "It really is a pretty diverse group we are going to have in there."