221A operates, researches and develops arts infrastructure, including artist studios, workspaces, and housing for the benefit of working artists, non-profit cultural organizations, and small cultural businesses, towards the public appreciation of the arts.

When 221A was formed by a group of students in 2005, there was no initial impulse to operate facilities. In 2008, when the collective moved into its first building at 221A E Georgia Street, it quickly became necessary to build capacity to negotiate with landlords, city regulators, and arts and culture funders. The work of 221A transitioned from focusing on cultural programming activities to a broader cultural infrastructure role within the sector.

221A has since participated in the operation of nine facilities. 221A does not have freehold ownership interest of these facilities and relies on active negotiation of favourable headlease and regulatory conditions, as well as government support for operations and capital improvements to satisfy security of tenure.

The following information provides insight and transparency into some of the methods and practices developed by 221A through the resources available to the Society. 221A aims to continuously improve its practices to contribute well functioning, community-governed, enabling, and accessible infrastructure for the arts, and does not consider 221A's work or methods as the singular solution to the affordability crisis facing artists and arts organizations.

1. Artist Studios Cost-Recovery Model

221A operates its artist studios on a "cost-recovery model". This model creates a rental rate for each tenant based on the total cost of operating each building. For an average facility operated by 221A, this includes rent and taxes paid to the landlord (65% average in 2024), utilities and building services (29% average in 2024), and the cost of 221A's proportionate overhead expenses (6% average in 2024).

221A is the "head tenant" and invests capital funds to improve buildings for the purpose of subleasing or licensing the facility for artists to use or for cultural programs funded by 221A. Headleases held by 221A are anywhere between 10 and 60 years in length. Tenants typically enter 1 year agreements with 221A, and are charged a monthly rent. At the renewal of each agreement, an updated rent is set based on costs imposed on the Society to operate the building.

Breakdown of average cost of a studio at 221A

• Landlord Rent & Taxes (65%) – base rent paid to the landlord, GST, and property taxes
• Utilities & Services (29%) – building-specific electricity, gas, sewage, water, landlord's insurance, shared internet, security, cleaning, waste removal, repairs, maintenance, property management, legal costs.
• 221A (6%) – overhead costs, including insurance, administrative personnel, tenants advisory committee costs, Indigenous advisory committee costs, board of directors, office costs. Overhead costs are low as a result of government operating grants.
• Other costs
  • Amortization expenses – 221A facilities where a capital improvement has taken place and there was insufficient fundraising to cover the improvement may also have a leasehold improvement amortization cost that is recovered through rental rates. Notably, 221A has a successful track record of raising funds to complete tenancy improvements.
  • Tenant Subsidies – some 221A facilities have a subsidy mandate within the rental rate structure. These funds are used to provide a subsidy to lower financial costs for low-income and equity groups.
  • Maintenance or Other Reserve – some 221A facilities are mandated to collect fees from tenants to create a maintenance reserve to support long-term replacement of building systems within the facility.

Artist Studio Financial Benefits

Unlike market-based real estate practices, 221A's artist studio services are not set based on the highest achievable market price at any given time, but based on the costs born by the Society for a given facility.

Rental rates are set by 221A on a minimum annual basis based on increases negotiated with the landlord at the turnover of headleases, as well as changes to property taxes and operating costs. The core financial benefit that 221A passes on to its tenants is the ability to achieve lower cost and longer-term leases in larger facilities through access to funding for capital outfitting and government support that reduces staffing and overhead costs.

Because city-owned facilities do not charge market rents, 221A mandates much stronger rental rate controls for its tenants in these facilities. However, city-owned facilities typically have higher base operating costs, due to the shared costs of mixed-use building operations, as well due to the cost of maintenance for more robust building systems (such as elevators or backup generators).

Artist studio tenants at 221A typically have "gross" agreements that is inclusive of taxes and operating costs, and therefore do not expose the tenant to fluctuations for the duration of their agreements. However, rental rates are often increased by the Society at the extension or renewal of tenant agreements due to concomitant headlease rental rate increases and operating costs imposed on the Society.

Therefore, the rates offered by 221A are typically much lower than those found within the commercial leasing market, but is typically higher than those of artist collective self-managed operations.

Factoring in unit size and quality

Artist Studio Rentals at 221A are then "graded" according to the quality of each unit and each building. For example, an new purpose-built facility with natural lighting, high ceilings, acoustic dampening, and air conditioning will be graded at the highest rates, whereas an older facility with artificial lighting and lower ceilings, will be graded at the lowest rates. This ensures that within the cost-recovery model, tenants are paying an equitable rate. In addition to square footage calculations, this model aims to ensure that each unit covers their proportionate share of the total cost of the facility.

Rentable area vs. Unit area

Each artist studio also includes the cost of access to non-exclusive common areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, shower rooms, bike rooms, service rooms, bookable rooms, spray booths, common hallways and stairwells, printer or mail rooms, etc.. These additional square footage are factored into the cost of rent and to the calculation of the rentable square footage.

• Unit square footage is the area of each unit
• Rentable square footage factors in a proportion of common areas.

Facilities with larger common areas will have a higher rentable square footage than those with smaller common areas.

2. Artist Housing HILS & Rent-Geared-to-Income Model

221A (221A Artist Housing Society) operates 30 units of housing at 187 E 3rd Ave in partnership with the Community Land Trust of BC. This facility was provided by the City of Vancouver through a community amenity contribution, and therefore has nominal base rent costs, allowing the Society to set out significantly below-market rates.

Housing Income Limits

Tenants who occupy these units must meet the Housing Income Limits at the start of their tenancy, based on the BC Housing annual rates. 221A is mandated to complete annual income testing, which uses an average of 3-years to determine household income. Household income forms the basis for how housing charges are set out.

Housing Financial Benefits

The housing units operated by 221A provide significant financial benefit for low-income tenants, as rental charges are between $600 and based on housing pay no more than a set percentage (30 per cent) of gross household income toward the rent or housing charge; thus, rent is geared to income.

For example, a family with a total household income of $60,000 would pay 30% of their income towards their housing charge, which is $18,000 on rent, or $1,500 per month. A household who has a total income of $20,000, would have a housing charge of $500 per month.

In 2023, rental rates at 221A's housing units studio/1-bed/2-bed were between $435–$1,840 per month, with an average rental charge of $897 per month (2023, 221A). Whereas average rental rates in Vancouver housing market were $2,872 for a 1-bedroom and and $3,777 for a 2-bedroom (2023, CBC). These monthly rental savings are life-changing for artists and their families.

3. Tenant Advisory Committee

221A has historically been able to rely on our community within artist-run centres and within the educational sphere of art school to indirectly contextualize our activities, values, and needs of our tenants. As the society has grown further, there has been increasing need to formalize our communications and governance model to strengthen transparency, accountability, and trust with our tenants and community. To these ends, 221A established a portfolio-wide Tenant Advisory Committee alongside other governance and communications changes to improve tenant participation and information sharing.

The Tenants Advisory Committee (TAC) brings together current tenants to formally advise the board and management on 221A’s policies and practices pertaining to its tenant services. The committee:

• receives reports from 221A on the organizations operations and plans, with a focus on policies and long term facility plans, including negotiations with landlords and
• makes recommendations to create a functional, safe, affordable, and comfortable facility operation, and the sharing of resources that support tenants and artists.
• Committee members receive an honorarium for participation and meet on a quarterly basis, or as needed.

If you are interested in joining the Tenants Advisory Committee please contact Laura Fukumoto, Governance Coordinator, at lfukumoto@221a.ca.

4. Maintenance and repairs

221A is obligated for maintenance and repairs at each of its facilities based on the headlease agreement with landlords. This typically includes a broad accountability for facility maintenance, with the exception of the building envelope and most major systems, such as:

• HVAC maintenance
• Plumbing
• Lighting
• Fire safety, fire alarms
• Doors and windows
• Electrical maintenance
• Inspections
• Window cleaning
• Window vandalism
• Access control
• Cleaning
• Electricity
• Building exterior and grounds maintenance
• Carpentry
• Cleaning gutters
• Exterior cleaning and graffiti removal
• Landscaping
• Refinishing drywall in common areas
• Pest control
• Safety
• Signage

Some of 221A's long-term headleases further obligates the Society to cover lifecycle replacement costs of some major systems, such as the elevator or HVAC system. 221A is also typically expected to provide reports and notices to the landlord or other accountable parties.

Landlord's Obligations

In the majority of 221A's headleases, the landlord is required to maintain the building envelope and major building systems. An example of a typical area where a landlord is accountable would be to:

• exterior walls,
• foundations,
• roof, and
• exterior windows and doors.

Other Parties in Mixed-Use Developments

Typically for mixed-used buildings, an easement agreement will identify which party is obligated to pay for and perform maintenance. For example, a market residential strata may be tasked with providing security for the entirety of a building that includes 221A's leased area. 221A's role is often to be in regular communications with these other parties, provide notice to these parties when issues arise, and to communicate with tenants on progress towards resolution.

These arrangements can be complicated when one or more of the parties neglect their building maintenance obligations, or where there is a dispute between two parties about the interpretation of the easement agreement. At times 221A must and other active parties must put pressure on the inactive parties to take action. During these processes, tenants can at times become frustrated, as the resolution is often slower than when the maintenance obligation is within 221A's duties. We ask that tenants be patient, and do our best to offer information to tenants while we seek a resolution, which may include legal action when necessary.

Deficiencies and Warranties

When a contractor or supplier has recently provided services or appliances for a facility, there is typically a deficiency or warranty period. 221A often communicates with the landlord or landlord's builder or developer to provide notice when an issue arises.

Due to the complex multi-party nature of new developments, it often falls on 221A to put pressure on these parties to fulfill their obligations. 221A makes its best efforts to update tenants on the progress towards improvements, but is often unable to ascertain the communication channels to move forward on deficiencies and warranties. This can cause some delays, and ultimately require that 221A enter into legal conflicts with parties.

Tenant's Obligations

Commercial Tenants of 221A are typically expected to handle a substantial portion of these responsibilities within their unit area. These are further outlined within the agreements between 221A and the tenant.

Residential tenants are responsible for basic upkeep of a unit and for letting their landlord know when the unit needs maintenance. Tenants are also responsible for repairing any damage caused by people and pets living in or visiting their unit.

Unit or building upgrades

221A undertakes upgrades to buildings to the benefit of the facility and 221A's tenants. This process can involve a variety of approvals through the landlord, city regulators, and funders. When entering a headlease, 221A typically is required to fit-out the facility to be suitable for artist production and presentation. Based on the zoning and existing uses of the facility, the upgrades may be significant and time consuming in nature. At times, parts of the facility will be phased so that some access may be granted to tenants while other parts are completed.

5. Anchor Cultural Tenants

221A's facilities include public-facing retail or presentation spaces. 221A has been fortunate to work with a non-profit cultural organization as an anchor tenant for these facilities, including Access Gallery (since 2011), Ethoslab (since 2021), Malaspina Printmakers (since 2019), and Or Gallery (since 2018). Anchor Cultural Tenants typically carry multi-year agreements with 221A, participate in the tenant community, and provide community benefits.

6. Cultural Space Research & Advocacy

In addition to upgrading, operating, and negotiating cultural spaces, 221A contributes cultural space research to the field. 221A has been a participant in a variety of cultural space initiatives and activities nationally and internationally.

Currently, the society is:

• Working with peer non-profits and government to develop new models for long-term affordability of cultural space, such as the Cultural Land Trust.
• Working on a CMHC Solutions Lab, Artist Housing Report in collaboration with the City of Vancouver and Canada Council that aims to unlock new housing opportunities for the arts.
• Working with the Province of BC to complete an inter-jurisdictional scan of cultural infrastructure support in BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
• Working with other cultural space operators in BC to create the BC Cultural Spaces Operators Network. This network aims to bring together a variety of cultural space operators in BC to advocate for improved policy and better conditions for the arts.

To get in touch regarding cultural research and advocacy, please contact Carmut Me, Head of Cultural Spaces R&D, at cme@221a.ca or join our mailing list to receive news on forthcoming reports and initiatives.

7. Future Cultural Spaces

Beyond the current projects being operated by 221A, the Society is working on upcoming cultural space initiatives in collaboration with non-profits and government. If you are interested in working together with 221A, please contact Carmut Me, Head of Cultural Spaces R&D, at cme@221a.ca to see how your building project could be a fit for 221A.

How can we work together?