Vanyaland: City of Boston details plan to secure new long-term rehearsal facility in Brighton

Published in Vanyaland on May 16, 2023; By Michael O'Connor Marotta

A new musician rehearsal facility is shaping up in Brighton.

The City of Boston — led by Mayor Michelle Wu and the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and in collaboration with the Boston Planning & Development Agency, with efforts from local groups like the #ARTSTAYSHERE coalition — has revealed plans to acquire and develop a new multi-use space at 290 North Beacon St. The building would be purchased by IQHQ and then gifted to the city in hopes of creating a secure, long-term practice facility for bands and artists in the area.

The action is a result of the San Diego-based IQHQ purchasing the building that formerly housed the Sound Museum, a longtime rehearsal facility complex at 155 North Beacon St., where hundreds of musicians were displaced earlier this year. After paying $50 million for the property in March 2021, according to WBUR, IQHQ is converting the building and surrounding area into a 410,000-square-foot life sciences campus. As part of its mitigation package, IQHQ would gift 290 North Beacon St. to the city. The owners of the Sound Museum, the Desmond family, do not appear to be involved in this new facility, as neither they or their business is mentioned by name in the city’s press release.

According to that release, first issued last week and updated yesterday (May 15), the BPDA intends to schedule a public hearing and vote on 290 North Beacon St. at its June board meeting, and if passed, the city would officially acquire the property and preserve it as a space for the arts. Later this summer, the BPDA would then begin community engagement and seek a developer and operator to redevelop the site.

Currently, an 88-room “swing space” has been established in Dorchester, operated by The Record Co. and hosted by Center Court Mass. LLC, as a temporary, two-year solution to those displaced by the closing of the Sound Museum and other rehearsal spaces in the region. The building was previously home to radio stations owned and operated by Beasley Media Group; according to Curbed, Center Court Mass. LLC plans to convert the space into housing units, shops, and restaurants in the coming years.

“This permanent studio rehearsal space is a historic achievement for our Allston-Brighton artist community and citywide goal of preserving and creating new creative spaces in Boston,” says Mayor Wu in a press release. “I am grateful to Councilor Breadon, the Office of Arts and Culture, the BPDA, the #ARTSTAYSHERE Coalition and our community partners for their quick efforts to secure a space for our artists to have a place to call their own.”

Adds Kara Elliott-Ortega, the city’s chief of arts and culture: “This building will play a major role in mitigating the ongoing artist space issues in Boston that were exacerbated by the redevelopment of 155 North Beacon, and is a milestone for the growing advocacy in Boston’s arts community and our development of cultural policy. We look forward to the public process for this project and working collaboratively to ensure artists and musicians can stay in Allston-Brighton.”

Early last year, it was reported that IQHQ would specifically aid the Sound Museum in finding a new location for its tenants, but those plans never materialized. In February, the Sound Museum launched a non-profit group called One Voice to give artists a platform and help them remain in the city.

“Since purchasing 155 North Beacon St. we have been working closely with the Mayor’s Office with the goal of securing affordable high-quality rehearsal space in Allston-Brighton for the long-term needs of the area’s musicians and artists,” says IQHQ’s Director of Development Kim Thai. “To that end, IQHQ is proud to announce the purchase and gifting of 290 North Beacon St. to the City of Boston.”

The city says the acquisition of 290 North Beacon St. would become “the largest mitigation package the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and the BPDA have received to help support the arts and culture community in Boston.”