December 2011 -a Wellington brokerage is under development.

We are working on a brokerage for Wellington to facilitate relationships between property owners, artists, creative industries and Wellington City to populate vacant commercial space. By negotiating temporary licenses for the use of property The Urban Dream Brokerage will assist in inner city growth, urban revitalisation and creative development.

A critical component of dynamic urban renewal is having the mechanisms to allow non commercial creative ideas to flourish as well as giving local businesses the chance test out new business models.  We aim to create a new brokerage that can assist more than just the artists that Letting Space produces and curates.  

This idea of a brokerage builds on broader models such as Renew Newcastle, which has spawned Renew Australia. In Wellington, the Urban Dream Brokerage follows on from fora organised by Letting Space in 2011 and 2010 with support from Wellington City Council. In these live events, artists submitted ideas to us for the creative use of vacant space in Wellington city. At these events both artists and property owners and managers pitched their ideas to one another for the revitalisation of city spaces.

The brokerage also follows the series of art projects created by Letting Space in vacant commercial spaces in 2010-11 in partnership with property owners which have seen both the property and creative sectors reengage with the potential for new models for cultural and business growth, and the marketing of vacant property.

An account of the last Urban Dream Brokerage, 'Dragons and Turtles' can be found on our blog here. And more details on both events can be found here.

PICTURED: Chris Gollins (Colliers International), Liz Mellish (Port Nicholson Settlement Block Trust) and David McGuinness (Willis Bond) and the 2011 Urban Dream Brokergae, Wellington Town Hall. Below event poster and an image from Bronwyn Holloway-Smith's Pioneer City.