More than 100 artists who completed the Albert Lea artist market survey for Artspace Projects Inc. indicated they would be willing to relocate to an artist live-work project in the city, according to city leaders this week.

This number surpassed the threshold of interest necessary for Artspace directors to feel confident about moving forward with predevelopment work and discussions for a project in the city, Albert Lea City Manager Victoria Simonsen said.

“They were really encouraged by the results,” Simonsen said. “They said it was one of the best results they’ve gotten from a small community.”

In January, surveys were sent out to more than 4,000 artists and arts organizations as far south as Decorah, Iowa, as far east as Rochester, as far north as St. Peter and west to places like Mankato. Artists of all disciplines were invited to participate in the survey — including painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, writers, photographers and even culinary artists.

According to the results of the survey announced this week, 216 artists — 124 of who were not even from Albert Lea — completed the survey, and 117 said they would relocate for an artist live-work project, said Wendy Flugum, Albert Lea community development assistant director.

The survey was designed to help Artspace directors determine if there is a market for artists in the region.

Representatives from Artspace originally came to Albert Lea last May, toured four downtown buildings with city leaders, met with members of the local art community and conducted a public forum to inform area residents of their mission.

Artspace — a nationally known, nonprofit organization dedicated to creating affordable, loft-like studios where artists can live as well as work — began in 1979 in response to the decline of Minneapolis’ historic Warehouse District in the 1970s.

Since, it has become the national leader in the field of developing affordable space for artists through adaptive reuse of old warehouses, schools and commercial buildings. Together with the cities it chooses to work with, it purchases and renovates buildings and then leases them back to artists at below-market rates.

In cities where the projects have occurred, there has been much revitalization in the other nearby buildings.

At the end of the initial visit to Albert Lea, Artspace Resource Development Director Roy Close and Government Relations Director Stacy Mickelson formed a report based on their visit, including their responses to the project concept, the market analysis, the site analysis, the financial analysis and local leadership.

At the conclusion of their visit, they indicated they were interested in conducting the survey to see if there is a market for artists in the region.

They picked the Freeborn National Bank and Jacobson buildings as the location for the project if it comes to fruition. There would be 15 to 18 units available. They said they would need three times that number of interested, income-qualified people to respond in the survey for the project to move to the next step.

Simonsen said Artspace directors were pleased with the number of people from outside the area who were willing to come to Albert Lea. They were also pleased with the number of young people from outside of the area who were willing to move here.

She said she, too, was excited to hear about the number of younger people interested in the project, especially when so often the focus here has been on people leaving the city when they’re young.

“That’s a new population and a new business,” she said.

Now that the threshold has been met, Artspace directors will send Albert Lea city leaders what’s called a scope of work, which will outline the next steps, including timelines and funding responsibilities, Simonsen said. Then, Artspace’s next goal would be to secure ownership of the property.

The Albert Lea City Council will have to take action on the city’s financial portion of the project as well, she noted.

Because of the high rate of response, Artspace directors said they would still like to pursue having the project in the Freeborn National Bank and Jacobson buildings, Simonsen said. Then if a project were to be successful at that location, there’s a chance they could do another project at another building.

The city manager said the one piece that disappointed her was hearing the time frame for the next phase, which could be between 12 and 24 months.

“They did say it is possible the building could be open with 24 months, but I’d like to see something happen faster as I’m sure the community would, too,” she said.

If an Albert Lea Artspace project were to go over as well as other Artspace projects have in the past, it would greatly aid in the revitalization of the city’s downtown.