Berman's Alley Savvy

By Duncan Spencer
The Hill
March 8, 2006

Hill Art Colony

Who but a wild-eyed, wilder-haired artist like Mike Berman would found a Hill real-estate empire by buying 28 garages?

Definitely off the beaten track, Berman’s mind is humming with ideas. Like founding a Hill art colony on a secret, unused alley space between 14th and 15th streets S.E. Like opening up the Hill’s alleys and alley dwellings to make studios and living spaces for more artists.

He now wants to construct a building custom-made for studio space on a wide, empty parcel near his own studio off 16th Street S.E. To be designed by noted Hill architect David Bell, it will be known as the Arts Building at King’s Court.

Each weekend, Berman, the bearded and spectacled model of a young artist, hawks his intense and colorful works at Eastern Market. He’s also politically active, working for the interests of the artists at the market and watchdogging their rights as stall holders there.

But Berman’s other side is real estate. He gained notoriety as the poster boy for downtown artists fighting the developers and trying unsuccessfully to preserve commercial buildings in the 900 block of F Street N.W. The wrecking ball still crunched the buildings (and his own studio), but the fight won a compromise from the developer — a large parcel on the interior of the development will be available for an art building.

Berman moved to the Hill and with the help of developer Giorgio Furioso bought a large alley building at 29 Kings Court (the big alley between 15th and 16th streets S.E. near South Carolina Avenue) once occupied by the Better Box Co. He then became a landlord, splitting the 11,000-square-foot space in to six studios, all now rented out.

His next venture was the garages, tucked away north of Potomac Avenue S.E. With two financial partners he bought them, rented them out at $140 a month and was paying the mortgages.

“I found everyone wants storage space,” he said. Eventually, these too may be used for artists’ workspaces. As for the building plan, he says he has talked to D.C. planning officials and “they have agreed in concept. We are going to work on this one step at a time.”

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