Survival ideas for creative clusters

The fate of creative spaces, which in recent years have become a completely independent and actively developing format in the commercial real estate market, is now a big question. Most of these projects are situated in Moscow and St. Petersburg in place of industrial facilities with a history. Whether they manage to survive in times when people are sitting at home, and creative workers who are main residents of coworkings in factory buildings work remotely, depends on many factors. But mostly - on whether the owners can keep tenants and come up with something new for a creative audience.

Can't live without people
Situation in the beginning of May is quite difficult: creative spaces, like many other businesses, are facing losses: tenants are moving out and terminating contracts, or simply running away without paying.
“We kept to the last: all computers were taken out of neighboring offices in Artplay, silence flooded the entire building, cafes with falafel got closed, cleaners from Kyrgyzstan scattered, and we washed floor ourselves. There used to be a printer center, which - surprisingly - was printing albums for us till the end, but unfortunately, they also informed us that they were moving out forever, ”says Nikita Vykhodtsev, an architect and a founder of Arcanika studio.

“With varying success, we are fighting for financial support from the landlord, as there is no rental holiday. But we manage to achieve discounts little by little. The office is covered with dust in silence, and we pay, although we’ve got a discount, which cannot be mentioned out loud,” says Mr. Vykhodtsev.


The original publication: https://www.vedomosti.ru/realty/articles/2020/05/13/830143-idei-vizhivaniya-dlya-klasterov