This morning’s issue of the Boston Globe featured a prominent picture of Ops-Core front man David Rogers calmly standing in front of racks laden with protective helmets. Just below his picture was a small inset photo of a rather irate, finger pointing artist tenant of the Midway Studios facility also occupied by Ops-Core. The issues at hand seem to be bigger than Ops-Core. Really, it’s all about money. Many of the artist tenants of the facility signed on with the understanding that they could rent and then purchase their spaces. After developer Bob Kuehn died of a heart attack they began to find out that they couldn’t purchase their spaces after all. To further exacerbate matters, the building came at risk of foreclosure if the developers couldn’t find a renter for the large “theater” space in the basement. The nut was $3 million over 10 years and Ops-Core came in and offered to place their helmet assembly operation in that space. Their rent would come close to covering the needed funding. But, rather than looking at Ops-Core as a savior of their rent controlled apartments, they’ve decided to take out their frustration on them. Granted, their was an isolated incident when a work crew hired by Ops-Core to refinish floors failed to properly vent the space. Some of the residents chose to leave their spaces overnight due to the polyurethane fumes. But, that isn’t likely to happen again.
Ultimately, the Boston Globe story, “At Fort Point studios, artists feel betrayed” is really just gasoline on a fire. It doesn’t solve anything but rather fans the flames of discontent. Furthermore, it fails to mention the impact of the Ops-Core closure. 80 employees are collecting unemployment and it has caused a hiccup in the assembly of helmets. Finally, I doubt but few of the tenants have considered their actions. If Ops-Core leaves, it may well result in the closure of the facility altogether. Assuming that much of a loan would require guaranteed income. While there are numerous tenants at Midway Studios, it is doubtful that they would band together and form the business entity required to acquire the building and manage it. After all, they’re artists, if they wanted to manage real estate portfolios they wouldn’t be living in rent controlled spaces.
Overall, it’s a lot of venting, and posturing and well, “Occupy Ops-Core.” In the end, the artist tenants will turn their outrage elsewhere. Hopefully, it will be before any more damage is done.
