By Sunanda Creagh Urban Affairs Reporter
EIGHT years ago, Diego Bonetto was among a group of artists and squatters living in old warehouses on Broadway, fighting moves to evict them.
Bonetto is back on Broadway, in a different abandoned warehouse, only this time the development industry has come around to his way of thinking. "We were arguing that empty buildings should be used for artists in the lead-up to being developed," he said yesterday. "Now it's really happening."
Bonetto is among a group of 10 artists who are being given free use of disused warehouses adjoining the former Carlton United Brewery site on Broadway, which the Frasers Property group is turning into a $2 billion residential and commercial hub.
Frasers wants to turn the warehouses on Kensington Lane into a restaurant precinct but until it does its buildings will be offered to artists on three-month rotations.
"It's fantastic for us but the artists also create a bit of vibrancy in the area, which is of benefit to Frasers, too," said Bonetto, whose latest art project involves collecting pot plants from his community and exhibiting them with tags explaining each plant's life story.
The warehouses, now known as FraserStudios, will be managed by a Chippendale non-profit organisation called Queen Street Studio and the project has the backing of the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore.
The other nine artists selected for the first three month stint are: Zehra Ahmed, Zanny Begg, Gareth Ernst, Rudy Kistler, Anna Kristensen, Mai Long, James McCallum, Sumugan Sivanesan and Jessica Sutton.
Kistler said the studios also offered people like him "a chance to network with other artists".
The chief executive of Frasers Property, Nicholas Wolff, said that "by having people in our buildings, it's activated. It's not a dead part of the suburb."
The company, which wants the State Government to approve an extra 22,000 square metres of floor space for the 11-block development at the site, has faced loud criticism from locals concerned about traffic impacts, overshadowing and heritage issues.
Mr Wolff admitted the artists studio venture was good PR for the company but doubted "that any objectors will change their minds on our project because we have started FraserStudios".
He encouraged other property developers to consider lending empty buildings to artists. "You need to make sure the buildings are safe but I would hope that it was possible for other developers to do it, too," he said.
Gosford Council has asked the State Government to let councils penalise property owners who leave their buildings vacant. The council said derelict buildings frequently "fall into disrepair, are defaced or inhabited by squatters".