Artspace finding success in the nonprofit sector

Artspace is succeeding by applying entrepreneurship to the nonprofit world.

Artspace was founded in 1980, but its efforts to provide living and working space for artists have accelerated since executive director Jessica Norie joined the organization in 1998.

Norie has directed development of the Artspace Bridge Project, which contains 62 units of affordable housing and 20,000 square feet of commercial space to house small retail shops, offices for nonprofits and artists' studios.

She also has overseen development of the Artspace City Center, 18 affordable live/work townhouses and 22,000 square feet of commercial space, which was the first project in Utah financed using New Markets Tax Credits.

This relatively new tool in the real-estate marketplace has helped bring equity to the organization's projects, including the upcoming Artspace Commons, located just a few blocks south of other Artspace properties on Salt Lake's industrial west side. The property is in Salt Lake City's RDA Granary Development District, which the city plans to transform from industrial to residential and commercial uses.

As with other Artspace developments, the Commons project will help the city reach that goal. However, Artspace's unique goals ensure that, even as its projects help gentrify and improve the city's rundown neighborhoods, the artists and other "urban pioneers" whose presence brings so much vitality can continue to afford to live there.

Artspace uses sustainable building techniques and will continue to do so as it strives, under Norie's guidance, to become a self-sustaining nonprofit. The organization covers the majority of its operating expenses with fees from its projects, and Norie believes that as more projects are built, fees from those developments should reduce the need for grants and other assistance.