Lofty Plans: Holsum project a cornerstone of arts downtown renaissance

By Kristen Peterson

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 8:20 a.m.

From the patio of the Grill on Charleston, a small restaurant in the Holsum Lofts, you can see the new World Market Center.

The restaurant owner grows tomatoes and herbs out front and has art from a local gallery hanging inside.

With a clean, stylish atmosphere (butcher-block tables and modern/retro leather-covered chairs), fresh ingredients and original recipes, it's a nice place to grab a bite.

Moreover, the Grill on Charleston is a signal to passers-by that the Holsum Lofts, on Charleston Boulevard near I-15, is open for business.

"I've had my eye on this project since they started working on it," said tenant James Drewry, who, along with Jerry Hall, moved from Laguna Beach, Calif., last month to open Lynn Peri Collections in the building, joining other new galleries, boutiques and contemporary furniture stores.

Why Hall and Drewry would leave an art community known for its deep-pocketed tourists looking to buy art and head to Las Vegas makes more sense when you consider the arrival of the World Market Center opening in July.

"We have a big design following," Drewry said, adding that between the growing downtown Arts District, the proposed lofts and the arrival of the World Market Center, "I feel we are getting in on the beginning of something.

"In Las Vegas it's almost like a renaissance is going on."

Wes Myles (aka Wess Isbutt) couldn't agree more. A photographer who renovated and opened the Arts Factory (the location of his Studio West Photography) in 1997, Myles sees the arrival of World Market Center, which will host furniture and household accessories shows, as the power surge the Arts District has been waiting for.

More specifically, Myles said exuberantly, "It's a big boulder dropped into our little pond.

"The tenant list is unbelievable. It's just going to bring people from all over the world downtown. And these are art-friendly people. They're going to look for the coolest bars, the coolest studios."

The area has grown so fast that two years ago Holsum Lofts couldn't have happened, Myles said, explaining that if Jeff LaPour, of LaPour Partners, had renovated the bread factory at that time, it would have sat vacant.

The large amount of money LaPour spent bringing the building up to code wasn't a complete surprise to Myles and some of the Holsum tenants, who say they have watched LaPour struggle with the city on issues such as fire walls abutting an alley.

"I've actually gone to the building department on Jeff's behalf, because in my opinion they were a little hard on him," Myles said. "Buildings here aren't restored. It's not part of our psyche. They're demolished and rebuilt."

But, he added, "The people who follow Jeff will have a much more easy road and a much cheaper road. He is a unique person with a lot of tenacity and good vision. He's not going to make a fortune on his leases. But in his portfolio, this is his shining star."

LaPour bought the bakery in 2003 and renovated it to a whistle-clean facility that has kept its original signage, concrete floors and exposed ceilings. He has invested $6 million in the property, which has more than 20 spaces ranging in size from 250 square feet to 12,000 square feet.

The bakery originally opened in 1954 and provided bread to Las Vegas that was fresher than what was shipped to the city. Two more buildings went up in 1955 and the bakery went through different owners before it closed in 2002.

"They kept as much of the old as they could keep and the new stuff looks like it belongs," artist Joseph Palermo said as he looked around his Gallery P, which sells work by Miro and Dali in addition to national and local artists.

Of LaPour, Palermo said, "He's almost handpicking everything in this building. He loves the arts. He could have torn this down and redid this. But he wanted to keep the original feel."

Artist and gallery owner Michael Griesgraber, whose MGriesgraber Studio Gallery includes natural lighting from skylights, added, "I'm hoping it will give other people the idea that these old buildings don't have to be bulldozed."

Originally from St. Paul, Minn., where he said "you have a gentrified well-educated city government that's been around for 150 years," Griesgraber said renovation is far more difficult in Las Vegas than in other cities because the city has "outgrown the people in the administration."

"The city has a workload that has gotten much bigger and the people are no more confident," Griesgraber said. "It's so difficult to restore or renovate an old building because the city comes out with a book this (8 inches) thick.

"The artists' cheap space has been coded out of existence."

Myles, who meets monthly with the building department via the Arts District Task Force to talk about licensing and zoning, sees this as all part of the process in redeveloping a new city.

"It's been a long and arduous learning curve," Myles said. "The code says this, the reality says that."

"Next year I will spend $2 million to retrofit the Arts Factory to meet (the city's) needs. We get an endless time extension. Before I couldn't retrofit. Now, with property prices rising, we can (borrow) the money."

Unfortunately, Myles said, "We are raising the rents and it is going to (affect) the artists ... The Arts Factory, as a financial endeavor, has lost money since its inception. It has never made a profit."

Rebuilding the area

With a personal interest in urban gentrification, LaPour said he had been following and researching redevelopment in other cities when he learned of the Holsum Lofts.

Despite others saying that he had a lot of difficulty opening up the lofts, LaPour, who has developments throughout the Southwest, said, "Anytime you renovate rather than build something it becomes more complicated, especially when working with a mixed-use space."

LaPour said he originally planned for the site to be live/work studios, but received such high demand from clients wanting gallery space that he kept it as a business environment.

"We could have filled the building three times, but we're just looking at the right mix," LaPour said. "We've gotten such a fabulous combination of tenants that the building will be the centerpiece of the Arts District."

The right mix includes Drewry; Hall; Griesgraber, who moved from the Arts Factory to open a gallery and studio in the lofts; Joseph Palermo, who moved into the lofts from his gallery in Henderson; and others who will give the lofts a cultural feel.

"We weren't interested in office space," said LaPour, who expects the lofts to be fully operating by July.

Central Kitchen & Bath Studio is there, a high-end custom cabinetry company is moving in and Henrikson/Butler office furniture is opening a showroom in the lofts. One gallery features the work of artists Jennifer Main and Bill Sloan.

Artists Anne Keefe Alenik and Popi and Kate Cotrell opened the Art & Soul Gallery, just off the loft's interior courtyard patio.

Alenik, an artist who works in metal, mirror and glass, sells her art in stores in Sedona, the Fashion Show mall and at the Venetian. She makes clocks, lamps and mirrors and other original wall hangings.

Alenik says she is connected to other artists she meets at shows and plans to rotate work by different artists through the gallery. The Cotrells' work includes colorful and vibrant mosaics and window art. Jewelry from a San Francisco artist is also sold in the store.

Prior to seeing Holsum Lofts, Alenik she had no plans to open a gallery.

But, she said, "As soon as I looked at it I just fell in love with the building."

Griesgraber, a longtime mainstay in a nook at the Arts Factory, was one of the first tenants to move into the lofts. The move into the larger space gave him more room to breathe.

"The space was way too small for me," Griesgraber said of his former studio. "I believe artwork should be seen in such a way that people should contemplate it. Over there I was stacking it. I had three or four things all the way up to the ceiling."

Griesgraber chose to show the primitive and organic work of Las Vegas artist Eric Thurston Dunn to open his gallery. Dunn's work was the first solo show at the lofts.

"What I'm going to end up doing is alternating shows and work, then I'm going to shut down for some time, paint and then when I emerge from my chrysalis and have a show the gallery will be a gallery again," Griesgraber said.

Dunn, who says he is known among gallery owners to be difficult because of his demands, is looking to build his exhibit resume and was seeking a professional space that best shows his work.

"The work is floating here," Dunn said, looking around Griesgraber's airy white-walled gallery.

"I don't expect to sell anything here," Dunn said. "The point of showing here is building a resume. There is a gallery in Atlanta that sells exactly what I do. I knew then that before I could send them a package, I needed to have been written up in a newspaper."

Born in Detroit, Dunn joined the U.S. Navy and traveled Europe before landing in New York, where he studied and worked in fashion design. He's particular about where his work is displayed and having it at a gallery that is insured.

"I intend to be taken seriously," Dunn said. "I won't have a booth at First Friday. And for me, I won't participate in vanity shows where you pay to show your art."

Looking at one of his canvas-and-wood wall sculptures hanging in Griesgraber's studio, Dunn said, "It's really the culmination of everything I've done. I strive for this organic feel, canvas and cloth.

"When I was working in fashion I thought of (clothes) as architecture of the body."

Art for sale

While Griesgraber's gallery will feature his own work and possibly that of other local artists, Drewry and Hall's gallery sells the work of mostly international artists including Agostino Zaliani, Enzo Faraoni and Safet Zec.

The gallery also features home furnishings and decorative arts by Carlos DeAnda and bronze sculptures by Nairi Bagdagulyan.

Today the shop they left in Laguna Beach serves as a sister store to Lynn Peri Collections.

"They had a little tiny space, but it felt huge," said Charlie Ferrazzi, owner of Esther Wells Collection, the oldest commercial gallery in Laguna, via telephone.

"They were a great asset. They did a lot of work with Third Thursdays (a monthly art event in Laguna Beach). They've got some absolutely gorgeous work and have a good eye. We miss them already."

But, Ferrazzi said, "I guess they've fallen in love with the area."

With their blond Afghan asleep on the gallery floor, Drewry said, "We're on the beginning of something that's going to be big and grow, whereas in Laguna we were trying to fit into an existing community."

Drewry said that he and Hall didn't consider opening a gallery on the Strip.

"We're not necessarily targeting the tourist market," he said. "We're targeting upscale residents and second residents."

The two rushed to get the gallery together for May's First Friday.

"We still had about 300 people come through, which isn't too bad," Drewry said. "We had a line of lamps that sold out that night."

In addition to the Miros and Dalis, Palermo's gallery sells work by artists Neal Doty, Gorah Satoh, Kotaro Yuki and Polish artist Hanna Iglikowska, who lives in Las Vegas and paints minimalist landscapes.

"I don't think I've had more than 50 people in here, but I've sold three pieces," said Palermo, who once had a gallery at the Arts Factory and owns property in the Arts District with Myles. "We'll see what happens. I haven't even sent my mailing list yet."

Griesgraber stays pretty positive.

"I'm beginning to find a few people willing to spend money to buy something original," he said. "When you come from a more sophisticated area you bring that knowledge with you and there are people looking for sophisticated art.

Once you have original stuff on your wall, you don't want to put up fake stuff."

Until the crowds come shuffling through, Griesgraber is getting to know his neighbors, including Eugene Keslow, the owner of the Grill on Charleston, who moved to the area four years ago and opened similar restaurants.

"The rent is right," said Keslow, whose grill is in the former maintenance building of the bread factory. "I just wanted to grow with the building and the area."