DRI Grant Will Tame "The Beast" to Be an Art Hub
Anne Rogers and Paul Cox were awarded $522,000 from the $10 million New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant.
A dilapidated four-story, 21,000 square-foot building in the middle of downtown Port Jervis looked like just the place for realizing the art and engine fantasies of multi-media artist Anne Rogers and her motorcycle designer husband Paul Cox when they bought it in 2018 for $175,000. Initially, they affectionately called it “The Beast.”
“Once I hit the third floor, my skin started vibrating. There’s a feeling that a lot happened here,” Rogers recalled of her first visit to to the 22 Jersey Ave. building.
City records for the property go back only to 1931, but it may have been built in the 19th Century, she said. It has been used for a “general merchandise” store, pharmacy, grocery and, more recently, antiques. The couple affectionately dubbed the building “The Beast.” They planned artist studios and spaces for living, exhibits, classes, a cafe and a custom motorcycle shop.
They talked about opening the renovated building with a celebration in December of 2018, but the project needed time-consuming work and money that were inadequate at the time. They lived most of each week in Brooklyn because their daughter Dylan, then 12, attended the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan.
However, constraints are receding. For work on the building, the couple was allotted $522,000 from the $10 million New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded to Port Jervis, and Dylan graduates from high school this month, allowing the family to move to Port Jervis full time.
With their new influx of money and time, the plan is to finish the first and second floors, build studios, paint the building, construct the motorcycle store, put awnings above the front and back doors and the CoCre Cafe take-out window, install lighting and have blueprints made for the third and fourth floor, Rogers said. Those floors will be structured as places for artists to live and work, probably one bedroom apartments.
“The blueprint will be for eight to twelve apartments, the number contingent on the law. We’ll need to find grants and investors,” Rogers said. “And what’s written in the grant proposal can’t begin until we get money. We have to pay for the work ourselves and get reimbursed later. We can’t touch anything until things are finalized. We hope to begin in nine months and finish within a year.”
As for plans for painting the building, she said, “The building will be dark blue with black trim, with steel framed doors and windows. The awnings will be steel framed with glass.”
The couple recently received a certificate of occupancy, and on July 6 they will have their first artist installation.
“John McGarity lives in Brooklyn, but he has painting, sculpture and film installations and residencies around the world,” Rogers said.
Meanwhile, Rogers has plans that extend beyond the building. For the building, plans include art studios, rental spaces for artists, a gallery and art classes for adults and children “to expand their creativity and have fun.” The vegan CoCre Cafe, creation of Erin Ralph, will have a place on the first floor with a takeout window.
“This will be a hub for local artists and visiting artists—a showcase. I’d like to create an art walk in Port Jervis and nearby towns with a map we provide, a two-day event,” Rogers said. “We’ll have pop-up shows, and upstairs we’ll have a residency program for a month or more, chosen by a committee and supported by us.”
This month, the family is moving to Port Jervis, leaving New York City after 33 years there.
“People from here and elsewhere are coming to make changes. I feel blessed to be part of the resurgence here. Otherwise you get priced out once again,” Rogers said.
Rogers and Cox met in art school at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. They joined the art scene in Manhattan in the ’90s, then moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, what was then a large arts community, with its unused factory lofts, Rogers said. But with gentrification after 9/11, they moved to Bushwick. She discovered Port Jervis while looking at real estate within two hours of New York.
Rogers describes herself as a “metalsmith and event designer.” She uses metals, precious and semi-precious stones and leather for home and fashion design, from jewelry and clothes to pillows, bowls and chandeliers. Her chandeliers will hang from the high ceilings of the building, now called RH Smith Mercantile, after her late great grandfather, with his 26 patents, which, she noted, include the wing nut and cotter pin.
Cox makes custom motorcycles, knives and architectural metal work. His motorcycles are internationally known, with custom-made engine and frame parts.
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