By Tom Bailey Jr. - The Commercial Appeal -

A proposal to develop 50-70 affordable live/work apartments just for Memphis artists has received a strong and positive response from the arts community, art supporters and city officials said this week.

"We're doing really, really well, but I really want Memphis to sprint through the finish line on this one," said Kerry Hayes, special assistant to Mayor A C Wharton. "The more responses we can get in these final two weeks," -- the survey closes on Dec. 22 -- "the bigger and better our project with Artspace will ultimately be."

He referred to an online survey at artspacememphis.org that measures demand among Memphis artists for such affordable accommodations. The survey also polls artists on where in the city they'd like the development to be.

Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization, has 30 live/work developments across the nation, but none is within hundreds of miles of Memphis.

They provide low-rent space where artists can live, work, exhibit or perform and feed off one another's creativity. Many also provide room for "creative businesses" such as coffee shops with gallery space, book publishers, recording studios, frame shops and fashion designers.

The city of Memphis, supported by the Hyde Family Foundations and ArtsMemphis, invited Artspace to consider developing in the Bluff City.

The predevelopment work is being funded by the city, the Hyde Foundation and an National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Artspace adapts existing buildings, builds new structures and expands buildings for its projects. It sometimes uses historic buildings.

"We're very pleased so far with the results of the market study," said Artspace's Wendy Holmes, senior vice president for consulting and strategic partnerships. "The demand is high.

"I'm sure we'll be able to create 50 to 70 units of live/work space."

Among the questions the survey asks artists is if they would prefer the development be in the South Main Arts District, Cooper-Young, Crosstown, Broad Avenue, Marshall Avenue, Soulsville or someplace else.

The current preference of city officials is the South Main district, Holmes said. "But they also want to understand what the artists' preference areas are."

Robert Lipscomb, director of the city's Housing and Community Development, described the South Main area as a "natural."

"That's really the artist housing area. The college just moved down there," Lipscomb said, referring to the Memphis College of Art's new graduate school building. "The artists are already entrenched there. There are several art studios."

But the decision-makers will be wise to give weight to the artists' preferences, indicated Susan Schadt, president of ArtsMemphis.

"Often, if you say to artists this is where we think you ought to live, they'll run 180 degrees in the other direction," Schadt said.

The neighborhood that lands the development will likely get a big economic boost.

"Artists will move about in a community to the next emerging hub," Schadt said. "When you follow the artists around, in many cases, they are responsible for development of economic drivers. ... And they will seek out sometimes the most blighted and out-of-the-way spot and decide that's where they want to be."

Artists who qualify for the housing must make no more than 60 percent of the median income in Memphis.

They also must have a portfolio or performance track record; just singing in the choir on Sundays won't qualify.

Given the local musical heritage, the Memphis Artspace will embrace musicians as well as visual and other performing artists, Schadt said.

Typically, Artspace receives 50-60 percent of its capital costs through the low-income housing tax credit program, 10-20 percent often through historic tax credits if a historic building is involved, from Community Development Block Grants, federal HOME program funds, 10 percent from philanthropies and a variety of local sources, Holmes said.

-- Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388