Trinidad Space to Create project to revitalize downtown with affordable artist housing

Chosen as Colorado’s demonstration site for the Space to Create Colorado program, Trinidad’s downtown redevelopment repurposed three historic storefronts along West Main Street into an arts-oriented live/work complex that includes 41 housing units, makerspace facilities and a cultural hub called The Commons. The Office of Economic Development and International Trade lists a $3,000,000 award for “The Commons Space to Create Trinidad” and describes renovations that produced 41 live/work housing units, coworking and meeting spaces, offices for the creative district, a cafe, two retail bays and the buildout of the Toller Garage business incubator.

Project materials and reporting show the development occupies addresses on West Main Street - Artspace lists 200 to 228 West Main Street while Visit Trinidad lists 204 W. Main Street - and the OEDIT entry notes the 41 units are “fully occupied.” Artspace and Colorado Public Radio describe 20,000 square feet of community space for artists; Visit Trinidad’s listing identifies The Commons as a 25,000-square-foot cultural facility, a discrepancy the city and architect HHL Architects can clarify. Artspace also breaks the housing into a second-story linkage of three buildings with 13 live/work apartments plus a separate building six blocks away with 28 additional units that together total 41 units.

The project’s funding and partners reflect a mix of public and philanthropic support. Artspace and project materials name HHL Architects as architect and list funders including the Boettcher Foundation, the City of Trinidad, Colorado Housing Finance Authority, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, El Pomar, Gates Family Foundation and History Colorado. The statewide Space to Create program selected Trinidad as its pilot in 2015 as part of a nine-project, $45 million initiative to create affordable creative-sector housing in rural Colorado; Artspace marks the project “est. 2020” and Trinidad Creative District posted a Grand Opening celebration for September 29, 2022.

Housing rules and resident mix are shaped by the project’s financing. Colorado Public Radio reports the apartments were designed to house local workers who make 60 percent or less of the area median income and that the project accepts federal low-income housing tax credits, which prevents the project from discriminating in tenant selection. Local users and program advocates describe a mixed population and new civic identity: Clark said, “It's given us a whole new identity which has helped the town thrive in a way that we haven't seen since it was founded, and [Space to Create] is just a piece of that puzzle.” On the project’s effect for individual residents, Michelle Helm, who moved to Trinidad after wildfire smoke affected her son’s health and who is not a professional artist, said, “This space opened up and we were able to just really heal and find a really clean space.”

Beyond housing, Visit Trinidad and the Trinidad Creative District describe The Commons hosting exhibits, public and private events and regular programming, with ticketed events such as a New Year’s Eve party and ongoing community outreach dating back to application meetings in early 2020. As the state demonstration project, Space to Create Trinidad is intended to inform eight follow-on Space to Create projects across rural Colorado, making downtown Trinidad both a working arts campus and a test case for rural creative-economy revitalization.