East Austin Gentrification Causes Flatbed Gallery To Lose Lease

EAST AUSTIN, TX — Flatbread Press & Gallery, an East Austin fixture for nearly 20 years, has become the latest victim of soaring lease rates in a part of the city swept over by a gentrification wave.

The co-founder and director of the Flatbed gallery housed inside an 18,400-square-foot building at 2832 E. Martin Luther King Boulevard told Sight Lines magazine said the lease for the building — home to well-regarded galleries, several artists studios and a smattering of arts-related businesses — was originally set for an extension into 2021 before the landlord told her that option was no longer available.

“This early need to relocate will force a difficult change for Flatbed given the real estate climate in Austin,” Katherine Brimberry said. The building's owner, Dallas-based Rosenfield Brothers Real Estate Group, has given her a move-out date of February 2019 when the current lease expires, Sight Lines reported.

Housed in the sprawling environs of a former shoe warehouse, Flatbed is just the latest old-guard tenant to be pushed out of its base amid rising property values that prompt landlords to capitalize with deep-pocketed prospective tenants. The building was assessed at $3.4 million last year — 120 percent higher than the $1.5 million valuation just four years before.

“We want to continue our work and truly desire to find a space that can house not only our studio and gallery but other studios and art businesses who focus on art on paper," Brimberry said in a prepared statement. "We want to continue being a place where the public can enjoy seeing and purchasing contemporary prints. A relocation may give us an opportunity to expand and create a center for works on paper. We are looking for partners to help us realize this vision.”

>>> Read the full story at Sight Lines

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