LHaus
Nov 30 2009

5Pointz owner gives up the fight: LIC’s Crane St Studios closed for good

Crane Street Studios are now closed, Long Island City

It’s the end of an era, it seems – or at least the conclusion of the six years Long Island City graffiti mecca 5Pointz housed dozens of artists in what was known as its Crane Street Studios. 5Pointz’s recent tragic saga has finally come to a close, as the building’s owner has decided to close the art studios permanently.

“After doing months of repairs on an iconic, graffiti-covered building in Long Island City, the owner has decided to throw in the towel. Five Pointz, formerly home to some 100 artist studios and known for the colorful stylized aerosol renderings on its facade, was placed under a vacate order in April after an exterior staircase collapsed, crushing a woman. The city fined the owner, G&M Realty, $13,000 for failure to maintain the building, located at 45-46 Davis St., and for using it contrary to the certificate of occupancy. G&M had not secured permission to convert the former factory into art studios, according to Carly Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings.

Back view of 5Pointz, post-stairwell collapse, Long Island City

The DOB listed a series of measures that had to be taken before the 90-year-old structure could reopen, including removing remaining outdoor staircases, fixing the facade and addressing fire safety issues inside. The owner completed most of the measures, but the Buildings Department still isn’t satisfied, and a G&M executive, who declined to be named, said he has decided to shutter the art studios for good.”

There was no mention of the 5Pointz graffiti gallery on the exterior of the building, which is distinct from the Crane St Studios within. Last we checked, the graffiti artists were going to keep painting the outside of the building despite the tenants being vacated from the studios inside.

Arts

16 Comments

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This was to be expected. I think a lot more artist spaces will be lost in the next few years as well. 5pointz is not the only place they have illegal studios that are unsafe that are being rented out any way. It will be very sad though if LIC loses its arts community. It’s like the only soul we got.

#1 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

This building will make an awesome loft apartment conversion.

#2 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

Sad.

I moved from LIC to the area around the Morgan L recently… if you want tons of lofts full of artists and interesting gallery spaces and events, it is booming over here… and rents are much more affordable. Come on over.

#3 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

The owner of 5 pointz crammed artists into unsafe tiny fire trap studios and made tons of money off of them for years. It took a tragic accident to finally get the City to take notice of the conditions. While I regret the loss of this vital group of artists I have no sympathy for the owner. I have not heard him express an ounce of regret for the injured artist – only his whining about all these terrible safety rules that he thinks are so unfair. For years he thwarted artists who complained of the conditions by flippantly saying he’s ready to sell out to a developer any day. The volume of tenants (many from overseas or out of town) allowed him to not give a damn. If anyone complained there was always someone else waiting in the wings. In my opinion he was essentially a slumlord.

#4 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

#4, I think that is unfair. The owner was very supportive of the arts community and rented space to artists at below market rates. The owner tried very hard to make repairs to keep this space for them, many who had been there a long time. I know several artists who had studios there, and the rent was incredibly low–they have been unable to find anything comparable in the Long Island City area and are leaving.
#3 is right, other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and afar have lots of cheap workspaces and many of our artists will leave because with the loss os 5Pointz they can’t afford to stay..
Our loss. Well, mine anyway, some of you may be pleased with that. I’m not.

#5 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

There are some large empty factories on 37th Avenue (near Northern) – would work great for artist studios

#6 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

Forget Brooklyn #3, Michigan is calling you back home.

#7 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

#5, I respectfully disagree. It’s easy to rent below so-called market rate when you are renting glorified closets and providing no safety whatsoever. I have no respect for an extremely successful Long Island mega developer who bought these buildings nearly half a century ago for close to nothing and has just extracted money from artists while doing the bare minimum to make the building safe. He could have easily taken a tiny percentage of his yearly gross to bring the building up to standard.

#8 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

Don’t bother #8, these Midwest people think NY’ers are all dumb ass rubes like them and the 1960-70′s never ended. They read it in Boy’s Life, so it must be true.

Welcome to the *real* NY bitches.

#9 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

#9 He could have also sold the building for a gazillion dollars to a developer or even devloped it himself when the zoning changes happened a few years ago and LIC real estate was so hot and everything was selling for a fortune. I don’t think extracting the little money he did from the artists was taking advantage of them, you’re right, he is an extremely successful developer, the rents here certainly were not lining his pockets. REALLY taking advantage would have been booting them out and selling the building off for megabucks or turning it into a luxury building like Arris. But he didn’t.

#10 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

#10, let’s see, between 5 ptz and Crane about 200 studios at an average $600 = $120000 a month = $1.4M a year. Give me a frickin’ break.

#11 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

Peanuts

#12 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

#11 Do you have any concept of the cost of heating and lighting a space of that size, not to mention RE taxes? He’s lucky if he broke even.

#13 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

i had a studio for several years, i never had heat, so if the landlord was painting heating bills he was getting screwed. and like most artists i coverd the windows with plastic.

#14 walter / 2 years, 2 months ago

Hey 11, go ahead and apologize for the mega developer. But no reason to apologize to the woman who came close to dying and now has a life of recovery ahead of her. Believe me, this mega developer knows exactly what he’s doing. Why don’t you try googling some of his projects that run in the billions. This building is just being held for the right time. If there was a sincere interest in the artists the building would not have been the disaster waiting to happen.

Artists have always been the convenient fodder to fill neglected buildings. It’s exactly what slumlords do. Are you saying that slumlords do a great service in the ghetto because they let poor folks pay to stay in rat holes?

#15 Anonymous / 2 years, 2 months ago

If this great urban art landmark is going down, then the least that should be done is to offer the artists who tag there a permanent canvas, so to speak, on the new site whatever it may be. What a great way to pay respect and give recognition to this art of today by having it decorate a new structure being built there. I think people will love it. Imagine graffiti murals in the lobby and on panels on the exterior. AWESOME!!!

#16 Anonymous / 1 year, 9 months ago

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