MOVING OUT
Youth arts nonprofit Warehouse 21 leaving longtime home in Railyard
Warehouse 21, the youth arts programming organization, will leave its Railyard building by the end of the year after having a presence at the location since the nonprofit’s founding in 1996.
Declining attendance and demographic changes in the Railyard area, along with increasing maintenance costs at the city-owned building, convinced Warehouse 21 officials to exit the long-term building lease with the city and land lease with the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp., Warehouse 21 treasurer Naomi Swinton said.
Warehouse 21 does not have a fixed location to move to but will offer on-site programming at Early College Opportunities, Milagro Middle School, the Performance Space in Eldorado and Capital High School, Swinton said.
Warehouse 21 is part of one of the teams making a proposal in response to the city’s request for expressions of interest in redeveloping the city-owned midtown campus — the former College of Santa Fe and Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Proposals are due Thursday.
“The cost of overhead and maintenance was continuing to escalate,” Swinton said. “We felt the best way to move forward, as the city was unable to do improvements, was to step out of the lease at the end of the year.”
She said the city could no longer provide Warehouse 21 capital improvement project funds. Swinton said Warehouse 21 has spent more than $100,000 in maintenance, repairs, janitorial supplies and insurance in the 11 years since the building was built in 2008.
“The City is evaluating options for future utilization of the building including potential sale for development in accordance with
The cost of overhead and maintenance was continuing to escalate.” Naomi Swinton, Warehouse 21 treasurer
the Railyard Master Plan,” city spokeswoman Lilia Chacon said in an email.
Warehouse 21 had been located in an older building at nearly the same site from 1996 until it was demolished in 2007 to make way for the current building.
The organization pays a $2,071 monthly land lease to the Railyard, and its monthly program services valued at $20,000 to $32,000 a month are considered in lieu of monetary rent on the 17,000-squarefoot building, she said.
Warehouse 21 is a resource center for youth considering arts or technology careers and has a state-of-the-art recording studio, performance areas and a digital media lab. Swinton said annual attendance at Warehouse 21 dropped from 10,000 in fiscal year 2016-17 to 2,500 to 3,000 at present.
The city has partnered with Warehouse 21 since the beginning, a news release said.
“Thanks to the good work of the people behind Warehouse 21, Santa Fe’s young people have had the benefit of some of the best programs in the country,” Mayor Alan Webber said in a statement. “At the heart of Warehouse 21 is that commitment to kids, and that will continue in the future, even as the cost burden is reduced and the location changes. We all agree that there’s more work to be done to help Santa Fe’s young people.”
The organization’s programs include training in the media, performing and visual arts, and they have served more than 25,000 young people ages 12 to 21 from many socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
Warehouse 21 has a continuing relevance, board President Maurice Oliver said.
“As STEM rewrites itself to include Arts, hence the term STEAM, arts education is proving itself to be more valuable than ever,” Oliver said in a news release. “Warehouse 21 can support more accessible arts education, technological literacy, and community building through partnerships with local schools and other locations around the city. We already have several options to provide youth programs in Santa Fe.”
The nonprofit has had financial struggles since 2016, with a deficit reaching $70,000, and then-board President Elliot Stern told The New Mexican in 2018 that had it been a for-profit business, it would likely have filed for bankruptcy protection.