Bergamot Station, a city-owned and tenant-run arts advanced in Santa Monica, California is dealing with doable demolition after many years of tensions between tenants and the municipality of Santa Monica. The 5.6-acre campus is house to 18 artwork galleries, studios and cultural venues, and has lengthy been thought of an vital cultural hub in Los Angeles. However many tenants really feel the town refuses to recognise it as such and needs to make use of the land to construct a housing venture mandated by California Senate Invoice 79, laws aimed toward facilitating high-density growth in transit-rich areas to assist deal with the state’s housing disaster, which was signed into legislation by governor Gavin Newsome final October.
Even earlier than the invoice handed, the wheels of Bergamot Station’s doable demise have been in movement. In February 2025, the town of Santa Monica reclassified the property as “surplus land”. Tenants have been knowledgeable they’d have round two years to vacate the property. In June 2025, the town issued a request for proposals inviting builders to submit plans. The proposals would enable demolition of the present galleries and alternative with non-public growth. In keeping with tenants, their galleries and areas haven’t been included in plans for the event.
The Bergamot Station Arts Heart—so named as a result of it was the positioning of a railroad station from 1875 to 1953—opened 1994 and was organised by Wayne Clean as one of many first gallery-sharing artwork complexes in the US. “We created a really particular setting which resonated world wide,” says Craig Krull, who has operated a gallery at Bergamot Station since 1994.
The advanced turned a broadly emulated mannequin for a collectively bootstrapped arts vacation spot, providing free public entry, parking, non-profit theatre, academic programmig and neighborhood occasions. “We have been the primary cease for thus many individuals internationally,” Krull says. “They didn’t even go to their accommodations. They got here to us first.”
Tenants describe a historical past of failed redevelopment plans, administration modifications, liens, evictions and hire will increase which have undermined the advanced’s long-term stability. From its inception, the connection between Bergamot Station and the town was strained and unstable.
Below new administration
In keeping with Robert Berman, who has run his namesake gallery in Santa Monica since 1979, he has been making an attempt to safe historic landmark designation for Bergamot Station for many years however the metropolis has refused. “I believe their purpose is to alienate the tenants in order that they transfer out or they evict to make it simpler for them to demolish,” Berman says.
Tenants say they observed an instantaneous shift within the environment at Bergamot Station in 2024, when the corporate Rising Realty Companions took over property administration obligations on the web site. Representatives for Rising Realty Companions and the town of Santa Monica didn’t reply to repeated inquiries from The Artwork Newspaper.
A mural at Bergamot Station references the positioning’s former industrial features Photograph by dvcronan, by way of Flickr
Rose Shoshana, who has maintained a gallery area at Bergamot for 32 years, says the environment on the web site modified dramatically after the introduction of personal safety. She says safety guards have been hostile towards guests, behaviour she says she had by no means skilled throughout her earlier many years as a tenant.
In a single alleged incident, Shoshana says a guard approached a customer claiming she “regarded like she didn’t belong right here”, and tried to kick them off the property. Loos have been locked and guests’ vehicles have been towed, seemingly with out cause. “You may’t resolve who belongs right here and who doesn’t,” Shoshana says. “It is a public area. A city-owned property.”
Tenants say such encounters have affected the positioning’s popularity as a free and open cultural venue. “This seemingly small incident represents a a lot bigger concern,” Shoshana says. “A very powerful arts and tradition advanced in Santa Monica is now being threatened. The potential loss to the broader neighborhood can be profound.”
Tenants argue that the town’s strategy bypasses significant public course of and historic analysis, and so they query how demolition may proceed if Bergamot Station qualifies for landmark designation. Berman provides: “Santa Monica needs to be greater than a boardwalk and a Ferris wheel.”
Charles Duncombe, the creative director of the nonprofit Metropolis Storage Theatre, says Bergamot is central to Santa Monica’s cultural life and civic id. “Till not too long ago, the town has been arts- and culture-oriented,” Duncombe says. “The Cultural Affairs [Department] have by no means had a seat on the desk.” He provides that the impact has been significantly damaging for organisations like his that function within the evenings.
Airport versus station
Duncombe speculates that the town is below a strict deadline from the state to offer a specific amount of housing. However he wonders if the town may wait till the Santa Monica Airport property turns into accessible after it closes to aviation in December 2028.
“I don’t know the land portfolio of Santa Monica (metropolis), however I’d think about there’s one other location they might set up housing in,” mentioned Krull. She provides that the airport and Barker Hangar location—which is internet hosting Frieze Los Angeles this week for the fourth yr in a row—had been raised as a possible web site for the housing growth, however that the neighbours within the space have fought it due to the affect on visitors.
Krull provides the lack of Bergamot Station can be irreversible. “The town is dropping an academic and cultural useful resource,” he says. “Bergamot can’t be recreated. It’s tragic.” He provides that the battle has been painful for tenants who additionally help housing growth. “Everyone knows housing is vital,” he says. “That’s why it’s been laborious to face up so fiercely.”
A web-based petition launched by the group Saving Bergamot has, as of this writing, gathered greater than 1,300 signatures.
Tenants say the state of affairs displays a widening rift between the town, property managers and the cultural neighborhood at Bergamot Station. Berman says the town’s long-term goal has been clear. “We’re destined to be torn down,” he says. “We’re on loss of life row and so they’re not even giving us a final supper.”
