The Route 1 corridor has a thriving arts scene, but some worry that rising rents driven by new development could hurt it.

In a recent segment on “WETA Arts,” Red Dirt Studio owner Margaret Boozer said that she has been able to stay open because she bought a former firehouse in Mount Rainier in 2014.

“Buying this building versus renting let me have security that I wasn’t going to get priced out of the neighborhood, which we were seeing happen on a daily basis here,” she said. “It let me have enough artists renting studio space to pay all the costs associated with the building and keep the costs down for artists.”

Because of that scale, Boozer was able to withstand the coronavirus pandemic, as over half of the 30 artists working at Red Dirt weren’t able to pay rent at one point or another.

But David Mordini, co-founder of the Otis Street Arts Project, said that recent rent hikes at his Mount Rainier location have limited their growth.

The segment also features John Paradiso, artist and studio manager at Portico Gallery & Studios inside the Studio 3807 apartments in Brentwood.

Paradiso said the five studios, which come with year-long leases, are an amenity and a feature for residents of the high-end apartments in the building.

“The developer of the building is very happy with the success of Portico Gallery studios because he loved the Arts District and he wanted the things that happened in the Arts District to happen in his building and they do now,” he said.

But Boozer said that, ultimately, for the Route 1 corridor to continue to have a vibrant arts scene, it will need more artist-owned buildings to prevent rents from going up or building owners from looking for more profitable tenants.

“Without artists owning their own space, we are going to have an Arts District with possibly very few artists,” she said.

You can watch the seven-minute segment here.

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