A win-win solution is now available for both retail property owners looking to lease vacant space, and artists looking for affordable, highly visible studios.
Zero Empty Spaces (ZES), a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company, leases empty retail space in the 500- to 20,000-s.f.-plus range within indoor malls, lifestyle centers and retail street-front sites on a short-term basis, and then divides the space into multiple studios. These studios are then sublet on a month-to-month basis to multiple local artists. The studios, in the 60- to 300-s.f. range, are priced affordably for these artists, and ZES does not require commission for any artwork sold. ZES also handles all leasing costs including overhead fees such as insurance, utilities, etc. These artist studios have already opened in shopping centers managed by operators such as Brookfield Properties, Madison Marquette, Colliers International and Simon Property Group.
ZES, which has been leasing retail spaces in Florida since 2019, opened its first unit outside of The Sunshine State in May of this year, in a former Burberry store in Natick Mall in Natick, Mass. The ZES team has indicated it would like to open more of these studio spaces in new states such as California, Rhode Island, Illinois and Virginia. ZES’s most recent leased space is a 4,681-s.f. unit that will open before the end of the year at the Bell Tower open-air mall in Fort Myers, Fla.
The concept is sure to proliferate nationally as shoppers love being able to interact directly with artists while perusing and supporting the local art scene in a convenient manner.
