Creative Class: Leveraging Location

Set on a hill overlooking the Hudson River, downtown Peekskill at first glance seems like any small city in the Northeast. Surrounded by quiet residential neighborhoods, Main Street’s sidewalks–which once bustled with weekend family shopping and daily activity–lie empty.

But first impressions can be deceiving. An hour from Grand Central Terminal by train, this small city of 22,000 boasts more than just fabulous views of the Hudson Valley. Behind closed doors, and increasingly apparent in storefronts, downtown Peekskill contains a thriving artist district. Its successful transformation confirms Richard Florida’s “creative class” hypothesis that attracting artists and other creative professionals can revitalize a community.

Tough Times

Before the artists moved in, Peekskill went through decades of hard times. From the 1960s through the early ‘80s, new malls sucked retail business away from downtown. Companies like Fleishman’s Gin that had provided steady manufacturing jobs left town in search of cheaper real estate and labor. Young people moved away for economic opportunity, abandoning family businesses and the buildings they occupied. A spate of crime and unrest in the 1960s left downtown Peekskill with a negative image it could not shake.

“At one time, [Peekskill] was the retail center of Westchester,” said Mayor John Testa, 46 years old and a lifelong resident of Peekskill. “By the time I was in high school, you could see it coming to an end… By the late ‘70s and ‘80s, it was abandoned.” When the last of the department stores finally closed, residents realized they needed to take action: Peekskill desperately needed a makeover.

New Ideas

Creating an artist district was the best way to turn Peekskill’s liabilities into assets. The city faced massive downtown vacancies in buildings of all types. Offering artists affordable housing as well as studio space would not only revive abandoned buildings but would also add round-the-clock residents to downtown. Additionally, the presence of artists would perfectly complement the rehabilitated Paramount Theater, an old movie house reclaimed by the city in 1977 and given over to an independent non-profit performing arts corporation in the 1980s. The mission of the Peekskill Paramount Center for the Performing Arts is to bring cultural and educational programming to northern Westchester and Putnam Counties at affordable prices.

In 1991, the city’s planning consultant at the time, Ralph DiBart, a Peekskill native, proposed creating a special-purpose zoning district for artists to live and work. In 1992, despite some public skepticism, the city adopted the plan. Peekskill offered matching grants to landlords who wanted to renovate for new tenants, obtaining some of the money from arts organizations including the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. But more important than acquiring funds was the task of selling the idea to artists themselves. Rather than settling for an “if you build it they will come approach,” the city aggressively courted them. The mayor held a press conference to announce Peekskill “open for artists.” And, responding to concerns that after they improve a place they’re often priced out of the market, the city authorized DiBart to help artists negotiate long-term leases–up to fifteen years.

One of the first artists DiBart assisted was Andrew Lattimore, a painter who moved to Peekskill from White Plains almost eleven years ago. His large live/work area of 2,300 square feet had once served as the headquarters of a newspaper–a warren of offices swept away in his reconfiguration of the space. Lattimore has stayed, in part because of the striking views of the Hudson that have inspired painters for generations. “I love the proximity to the river,” he says.

High Tech and Buggy Whips

The artist district is still growing. About a hundred studios and ten galleries are currently operational. The Flatiron Gallery is a cornerstone of the district, displaying paintings, ceramics, and photos by local artists. It is housed, along with ten studios, at a corner of downtown in the triangular Flatiron Building–a miniature version of its New York City namesake. Wendy Garber, owner of the gallery, has always lived in Westchester, but never in Peekskill. “I remember when I was a kid in the ‘50s and ‘60s, I shopped [in Peekskill] for shoes and things like that,” Garber said. “It was all mom-and-pop stores that went out of business.” Garber’s gallery opened on the second floor of the Flatiron Building and has been so successful that she annexed a room on the third floor. She says that the artist district has really taken off in the last few years: “Many New York artists want to come up here.”

Indeed, the vacancy rate has plummeted to the point that there are waiting lists for artist spaces. Demand is so strong that new infill projects are being constructed on lots left empty by demolition in the 1960s and ‘70s. Grants from New York State, Westchester County, and the non-profit arm of the Community Preservation Company have helped to fund these projects. Already, an “art tech” building with 28 lofts, each with T1 communication lines, has been constructed–and is fully occupied. A second phase, using a $1.3 million surplus, is planned. 

The renaissance in downtown Peekskill has attracted new institutions as well. Ten years ago, Westchester Community College opened a branch specializing in the arts, and has since expanded to offer a course in information technology. Together, those programs bring a thousand students a day into downtown. “Many businesses utilize those students and graduates,” said Bernard Molloy, director of the Peekskill Chamber of Commerce. For example, Ansmith, a company that produces content for CD-ROMs, relocated to Peekskill from New York City. In addition, an art museum opened in June.

The artist district is not without its critics, however. Older residents who remember the downtown’s heyday as a shopping center gripe that it is just not the same. Molloy summarizes the problem: “There’s always a dynamic tension [with those who] say ‘Yeah, but you can’t buy a pair of shoes.’ These are the same people who have been shopping in malls for 25 years.” Molloy thinks the criticism is outdated. “It’s not a fair analogy. It’s like saying ‘I can’t buy a buggy whip.’ But why would you want to buy a buggy whip?”

Creativity Transplanted?

Whether the success of Peekskill’s particular creative class strategy can be replicated elsewhere remains an open question. Even while it was economically depressed, Peekskill nonetheless had qualities that made it attractive to artists. One of its biggest strengths was its proximity to New York: only one hour by a commuter train within walking distance of downtown. DiBart claims that when he grew up in Peekskill many people lived their whole lives there without once setting foot in New York.

Those days are over. Now the economy of Peekskill depends on art buyers and expatriates from New York. Lattimore says the fact that “people who come up from New York City don’t need a car” is a major advantage for him in selling his paintings. And until gentrification strikes, Peekskill has the added quality of affordability, in contrast to most of surrounding Westchester where the average home price has soared to $580,000. Molloy says that for young people who are choosing to buy and restore old Victorian houses in Peekskill, the combination of affordability, the excitement of the artist district, and proximity to New York work as triple attractions.

Daily Grinds

The three storefronts below the Flatiron Gallery hold an antique store, a gift store, and a coffee bar, right out of Seattle–or, to be more precise, Brooklyn: two of the owners, James Lorr and his wife Laura Gillen, moved from Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, to Peekskill four years ago. “We liked the walkability, but didn’t see as much street life as we had expected,” Laura explained. So they opened their coffee bar as a hangout spot. “Five years ago, you couldn’t get a latte here,” Molloy said. “It’s changing slowly. There’s tension involved because it’s not your grandfather’s Peekskill.”

REFERENCES

Peekskill Arts Council

http://www.peekskillartscouncil.org

A listing of attractions in Peekskill:

http://www.hudsonriver.com/rivertowns/peekskill.htm

Peekskill Chamber of Commerce, 1 South Division Street, Peekskill, NY 10566, Phone: (914) 737-3600, Peekskill Celebration: A 3-day cultural festival held every August. http://www.peekskillcelebration.com

Paramount Performing 
Arts Center

http://www.paramountcenter.org

Tours of the Artists’ District

Every third Saturday tours of art studios, galleries and artists’ lofts begin outside the Paramount Center for the Arts, 1008 Brown Street, at 10 a.m. Tour guide is Wendie Garber, Director of the Flat Iron Gallery.

Fee: $5 per person. (914) 734-1894