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He Broke Into a Bank (With Permission). Then He Rented It for $1 a Month.
After an unconventional negotiation with his building manager, an artist transformed what was once a bank into a studio.
Rarely, in New York City, do you hear stories about tenants getting along with their landlords. But Victor Jeffreys II — a 41-year-old artist who has been living in the same apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for nearly 20 years — got lucky.
For years, the ground floor of his building was occupied by a Santander bank, which vacated the space late last year. During a casual conversation with his building manager, the topic of the empty retail area came up. The building manager told him he didn’t know what to do with the empty space while he was looking for a new tenant, said Mr. Jeffreys, who quickly asked if he could use it as a studio.
The building manager agreed, in an unofficial capacity. “He was like, ‘I’m not going to give you a key, but I’ll show you how to get in, you can do whatever you want, but you can’t have other people in here,’” Mr. Jeffreys said.
For about two months, he proceeded to “break in” and use the space to make art. “Breaking in required me getting on all fours and crawling through a hole in a wall each time I wanted to get into the space,” he said.
In June, he and his building manager made it official: For $1 a month, Mr. Jeffreys was granted permission to use the space. He also got a key, so he no longer had to burgle his own studio. That meant he could get insurance, so he could open the space to the public.
