Sunday, March 5, 2006 | 9:18 a.m.
After selling his Las Vegas home and traveling around the country for six months, Michael Kruis decided to head back to Las Vegas.
But first, he'd need an art studio, a quiet place to keep his artwork, do some writing and maybe paint a little.
So just after crossing Hoover Dam on his return to town, he called a friend and asked him if he knew of a space. Three hours later he was leasing a space in the Commerce Street Studios.
It was fairly affordable, accessible and in the Arts District, yet close enough to the edge of the district that it had that separatist industrial feel.
"It's more of what I remember of the old Arts Factory," said Kruis, whose 420 Stainless studio, which he rented in December, sits next to MTZC studio and across from Naked City Tattoo.
"The building is what I really loved. I love this neighborhood too. I love the Art Bar. I go to Tiffany's cafe (in White Cross Drug) for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Near capacity, Commerce Street Studios, 1551 S. Commerce St., is the newest mixed-use space operating in the Arts District - 10 of the 11 spaces in the 14,600-square-foot building are occupied by artists and small business. A little less polished than the Holsum Lofts and more solemn than the Arts Factory, the early 1970s building near Wyoming Avenue sits among mostly vacant storefronts, an area once considered to be among the most dangerous in town.
But with Commerce Street Studios, Las Vegas Rocks (an Internet radio station) and Artistic Iron Works up the street, Commerce Street is evolving into another hub of the Arts District.
Last week tattoo machines buzzed from inside Naked City Tattoo, artist Cybele was pounding nails in MTZC Studio, dismantling one exhibit to replace it with another.
In the connecting gallery below, Lily Cox-Richard, an artist from Virginia, was installing her exhibit at the Archinofsky Gallery, and Todd VonBastiaans was preparing for Friday's opening of Obstacle Art, a nonprofit, artist-created miniature golf course/exhibit.
"Ten years ago, going to Commerce Street would have been suicide," said Brian "Paco" Alvarez, a native Las Vegan and active member in the arts community. "But Commerce Street Studios has a really interesting energy. It's got this interesting aura of uniqueness and aura of no brow" as opposed to highbrow or lowbrow.
The building is now one of three in or near the downtown Arts District that rents spaces to artists, gallery owners, boutique owners and small businesses and the only one with available space. The Arts Factory has a waiting list of artists and Holsum Lofts is also full.
The Commerce Street Studios was purchased in December 2003 for $550,000 by a small group of investors, including the nonprofit art group Whirlygig. Unlike Holsum Lofts, the building required little renovation other than repairs to the roof and air conditioning that were partially funded with the help of a city grant. Mostly, artists leasing the spaces have done their own renovations.
When showing a space at Commerce Street Studios, building manager Cindy Funkhouser said she tells potential renters what to expect: "There's no foot traffic in the Arts District. You're either creating a destination or forget it. This isn't Manhattan."
Renters and gallery owners throughout the area would love to see that change.
"We'd obviously love more foot traffic, but everyone would," said Deborah Arin, co-owner of Archinofsky Gallery.
"It's not even 10 minutes from the center of the Arts District, but nobody walks over. People say, 'Oh, you're so far away,' but no, we're not. It's this funny perception."
Although Archinofsky is open only on First Fridays, Saturdays or by appointment only, Arin said the gallery has steady sales.
With the new addition of Obstacle Art and a showing of new works by Jorge Catoni at MTZC, last week's First Friday was expected to be a busy one. But it's on the other nights that Cybele, who goes only by one name, would like to see people moving around. Along with a few other galleries and studios in the Arts District, MTZC commonly hosts Third Thursday events.
Other tenants include Circadian Studios, the Modern Vegas Art Studio and a studio space rented by artist David Allington, owner of Naked City Tattoo.
"There's unity here, where everybody knows everybody," Cybele said. "They all come through. Mark (Zielman, who owns MTZC) and I do art nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"We get a little bit of a crowd in here on First Friday, but I try to get more people in here as a destination."
Vegas Ink, an editing, writing and consulting company that edits Nevada Public Radio's Southern Nevada Cultural Guide and the First Friday Newsletter, has been in the building for almost a year. However, it will be moving out when its lease is up in a month to look for a larger space in another area that would be more suitable for bigger projects.
"It's a great location with lots of potential energy," Phil Hagen of Vegas Ink said. He said that in exchange for low rent, he and his business partner, Amy Schmidt, renovated the space.
Chaz K, a tattoo artist at Naked City Tattoo, rents an art studio but complains that the $600 monthly rent he pays is too high, compared to what he could find in other cities, such as Chicago or Atlanta.
The spaces at Commerce Street Studios cost between $500 and $3,500 a month. The smallest space is 450 square feet. The larger spaces have been more difficult to fill. The last remaining studio is 3,500 square feet and rents for $1 a square foot.
"I thought the bigger spaces would be easy to rent because of their high ceilings," said Funkhouser, who owns the Funk House and is the originator of First Friday.
"But the artists just can't afford the bigger spaces. A lot of them want to try it for six months and see what it's like, and they're usually looking for smaller spaces because that's more affordable."
As lofts and high-rise condos are being planned for the area, property values and rents are increasing. For many, the most affordable way to have a gallery in the area is to rent a space in one of the area's three gallery-filled buildings.
Jacie Maynard, who operates L Maynard Galleries at Holsum Lofts, said she gets several people a day stopping in to ask about renting space in the building. While Commerce Street hasn't been renovated to the extent Holsum has, it has remained the most accessible and affordable.
On Main Street, toward the center of the Arts District, Funkhouser said, the artists have "already been priced out of the area."
The duplex across the street from the Funk House has been turned over three times in recent years, Funkhouser said. Three years ago, she said, the building sold for $350,000. According to the Clark County assessor's office, the building sold for $1 million in April 2005.
"I'm trying to keep affordable space for artists," Funkhouser said.
And there's no shortage of artists seeking space.
"Just in the six months we've been here it's changed," said Heather Nelson, of Circadian Studios in reference to the increasing visibility of artists and crowds in the building. "We want to start coming down here on the weekends."
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