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VACANCY ACTIVATION ADVISORY
Zero Empty Spaces earns media coverage for our concept, spaces, and creative entrepreneurs—showcasing how we transform vacancies into thriving communities.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2025
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES
SEPTEMBER 10, 2025
Across America, cities face a growing challenge – and opportunity, in vacant commercial and residential spaces. How can these underutilized properties be reimagined to spark economic growth, strengthen community identity and support local creatives?
Join the National League of Cities, in partnership with Executive Partner the National Apartment Association and featured guest Zero Empty Spaces, for an inspiring conversation on how local governments, developers and artist communities work together to breathe new life into empty storefronts and idle buildings.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2025
Across America, cities face a growing challenge – and opportunity, in vacant commercial and residential spaces. How can these underutilized properties be reimagined to spark economic growth, strengthen community identity and support local creatives?
Join the National League of Cities, in partnership with Executive Partner the National Apartment Association and featured guest Zero Empty Spaces, for an inspiring conversation on how local governments, developers and artist communities work together to breathe new life into empty storefronts and idle buildings.
AUGUST 1, 2025
BALTIMORE FISHBOWL / AUGUST 1, 2025
The founders of Zero Empty Spaces are bringing a commissary kitchen and artist studios to downtown Baltimore, one block from City Hall.
By Ed Gunts
For decades, the Horn & Horn restaurant chain had one of the most popular lunch spots in the city at 304 E. Baltimore St., a favorite with government employees at City Hall and the lawyers and bankers who worked in the surrounding business district. Former Mayor William Donald Schaefer was a loyal customer before it closed in 1976.
Horn & Horn “was mobbed at the noon hour,” The Baltimore Sun’s Jacques Kelly reminisced in a 2018 column. “Fans liked its fried eggplant, chicken biscuit sandwich and homemade ice cream. The restaurant was in the heart of Baltimore’s legal and legislative district (City Hall was a block away) and there was many a political secret exchanged on its bentwood chairs.”
The founders of Zero Empty Spaces are bringing a commissary kitchen and artist studios to downtown Baltimore, one block from City Hall.
By Ed Gunts
For decades, the Horn & Horn restaurant chain had one of the most popular lunch spots in the city at 304 E. Baltimore St., a favorite with government employees at City Hall and the lawyers and bankers who worked in the surrounding business district. Former Mayor William Donald Schaefer was a loyal customer before it closed in 1976.
Horn & Horn “was mobbed at the noon hour,” The Baltimore Sun’s Jacques Kelly reminisced in a 2018 column. “Fans liked its fried eggplant, chicken biscuit sandwich and homemade ice cream. The restaurant was in the heart of Baltimore’s legal and legislative district (City Hall was a block away) and there was many a political secret exchanged on its bentwood chairs.”
JANUARY 6, 2025
NEXT CITY / JANUARY 6, 2025
Next City’s Top Urban Arts and Culture Stories of 2024
By Aysha Khan
From local politics to placemaking, from community development to guerrilla urbanism, Next City is revisiting some of our top articles at the intersection of urban policy, arts and culture.
As artists, cultural strategists and community advocates find innovative ways to reclaim their spaces, tell their histories and fight for equity, we’re putting their efforts center stage. These stories highlight how arts and cultural initiatives can help reshape the fabric of our cities and drive social change.
Next City’s Top Urban Arts and Culture Stories of 2024
By Aysha Khan
From local politics to placemaking, from community development to guerrilla urbanism, Next City is revisiting some of our top articles at the intersection of urban policy, arts and culture.
As artists, cultural strategists and community advocates find innovative ways to reclaim their spaces, tell their histories and fight for equity, we’re putting their efforts center stage. These stories highlight how arts and cultural initiatives can help reshape the fabric of our cities and drive social change.
DECEMBER 24, 2024
SUN-SENTINEL / DECEMBER 24, 2024
Step inside Boca Raton’s BRiC campus — a hub rich with history, art and technology.
By Abigail Hasebrook
It’s a destination with a rich history in Boca Raton. And yet some people still don’t even know about the Boca Raton Innovation Campus.
BRiC, as it is more commonly referred, has a wealth of art, including a public outdoor artwork likened to Chicago’s “Cloud Gate,” aka “The Bean.” It’s the “Rocket,” a 30-foot-tall polished stainless steel structure that is one of the first things people might see while driving onto the Innovation Campus.
Step inside Boca Raton’s BRiC campus — a hub rich with history, art and technology.
By Abigail Hasebrook
It’s a destination with a rich history in Boca Raton. And yet some people still don’t even know about the Boca Raton Innovation Campus.
BRiC, as it is more commonly referred, has a wealth of art, including a public outdoor artwork likened to Chicago’s “Cloud Gate,” aka “The Bean.” It’s the “Rocket,” a 30-foot-tall polished stainless steel structure that is one of the first things people might see while driving onto the Innovation Campus.
OCTOBER 9, 2024
NEXT CITY / OCTOBER 9, 2024
Where Artists Are Taking Over Vacant Storefronts
The pandemic hollowed out our cities, leaving empty downtowns and office buildings in its wake. With galleries and art venues closed and disposable income at a low, the arts sector took a major hit.
What if we killed two birds with one stone by using our cities' vacant commercial space as affordable artist studios and galleries? That's the idea behind Zero Empty Spaces. Since its launch in June 2019, the Florida-based organization has placed more than 600 artists in 10 commercial buildings in 10 cities. Most are in the group's home state of Florida but they've extended as far as Little Rock, Arkansas and Boston.
Where Artists Are Taking Over Vacant Storefronts
The pandemic hollowed out our cities, leaving empty downtowns and office buildings in its wake. With galleries and art venues closed and disposable income at a low, the arts sector took a major hit.
What if we killed two birds with one stone by using our cities' vacant commercial space as affordable artist studios and galleries? That's the idea behind Zero Empty Spaces. Since its launch in June 2019, the Florida-based organization has placed more than 600 artists in 10 commercial buildings in 10 cities. Most are in the group's home state of Florida but they've extended as far as Little Rock, Arkansas and Boston.
AUGUST 21, 2024
BIZ BASH / AUGUST 22, 2024
7 Tips for Transforming Underutilized Spaces for Events
By Tracy Block
5. Use interactivity thoughtfully.
Zero Empty Spaces is dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement.
“We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio,” shares co-founder and managing partner Andrew Martineau. “Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.”
7 Tips for Transforming Underutilized Spaces for Events
By Tracy Block
5. Use interactivity thoughtfully.
Zero Empty Spaces is dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement.
“We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio,” shares co-founder and managing partner Andrew Martineau. “Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.”
MARCH 16, 2024
SUN-SENTINEL / MARCH 16, 2024 /
New ideas offered for Broward schools facing closure: Cities, nonprofits give their suggestions.
By Scott Travis
...
Zero Empty Spaces, a local arts group, proposed “activating closed school campuses to create artistic spaces serving our community” and “providing creative classes and workshops to the community including after-school programs for students,” according to a letter from Evan Snow and Andrew Martineau, the
New ideas offered for Broward schools facing closure: Cities, nonprofits give their suggestions.
By Scott Travis
...
Zero Empty Spaces, a local arts group, proposed “activating closed school campuses to create artistic spaces serving our community” and “providing creative classes and workshops to the community including after-school programs for students,” according to a letter from Evan Snow and Andrew Martineau, the
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