I was looking at real estate listings for properties in Newburgh, NY, and a building caught my attention: it included a storefront space, with a 3 bedroom, 1 bath “duplex” apartment above it. It fits with my idea of living above my own gallery space, and in this case, the price was within my affordability range. Before I even hopped in the car to go see it, of course I had to draft a conceptual image of what I might be able to do with it, and that is posted above. My initial thought was: this location is “close to shopping, dining, and the waterfront” (from the listing description), and not far from a proposed high-end luxury spa/hotel that was being discussed for development in Newburgh, which could bring clientele that might be interested in art. Far-fetched? Or not? My first thought was: at least it’s fun to imagine.
But the lure of this possibility, and my curiosity, had me driving up there soon enough. Here’s a look at the real building it its real condition, as of March 15th.
A few initial thoughts: I found street parking down the block, and as I walked towards the property, there were numerous people just hanging out on their front porches or stoops, and this was the middle of the day on a weekday. My first thought was that I had a better chance of getting mugged than selling any art in a neighborhood like this. A second observation, which you can see above right, is that there’s a small memorial for someone who was murdered here alongside the property. So maybe I shouldn’t be concerned about getting mugged, but rather staying alive? I don’t care how many millions of dollars are going to be invested in the spa/hotel or what type of clientele it attracts, if people are getting murdered outside my front door, I don’t think that’s the spot to sell art.
I was able to schedule an appointment with a realtor, so I did get inside to see the storefront and potential gallery (currently serving as storage for someone’s junk). It had potential, but the living space upstairs would have been a big step down for me comfort-wise, compared to my current home. You can see two views of the storefront space here below:
It was an interesting experience, going up to look at this space. I have a strange (or perhaps nostalgic) attraction to storefronts, dating back to my days of living in NYC and having my storefront on East 11th Street. There’s plenty about the idea of living above a gallery space that holds appeal to me, but at the same time, I have to remind myself of what my experience with a gallery space involved: a lot of sitting around, waiting and hoping that someone would come in to take a look at the art.
So, this spot in Newburgh is not meant to be, but I’ll keep the plusses and minuses in mind if or when I look at any future storefronts.