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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Axel Osterberg, founder of The Sanctuarey, a mission-driven real estate project focused on creating affordable housing for artists in San Francisco. Axel discusses the unique model of combining cultural spaces with low-income housing, the challenges of gentrification, and the importance of community outreach. He also shares insights into upcoming rural projects in Maine and the broader vision of cultural equity across urban and rural landscapes. The conversation highlights the need for sustainable housing solutions that support artists and preserve local culture.
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Axel Osterberg Gentley (00:00)
It’s, our social purpose is to preserve local culture and to give working artists a place to live while they create amid the gentrification that’s happening with the big tech taking over all of the affordable housing places downtown, so.So instead of artists being displaced by development, we’re building development that depends on artists. And it’s inclusive. So
Michelle Kesil (02:05)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to connecting with, Axel Osterberg, who is the founder of The Sanctuarey, which is a mission-driven, mixed-use real estate housing that blends cultural spaces with affordable artist housing in San Francisco.So excited to have you on the show today, Axel.
Axel Osterberg Gentley (02:37)
Thank you, I’m really excited to be here.Michelle Kesil (02:41)
Awesome. I think our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching creating this new type of housing model and your vision. So let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?Axel Osterberg Gentley (03:06)
Yes.Sanctuarey.org is a social activism performance non-profit corporation. We go into communities, we find the marginalized demographics, we help them access their voice.
share their story, and then we put it on stage. And we use the theater model to fund our community outreach and our stewardship programs. So we make a lot of money on stage, and then we put it right back into the community. So we’re a little bit different model. I’m a chaplain. I’ve worked historically in hospice, ⁓ and we follow a society of friends.
or Quaker tradition where we don’t preach, we don’t have a minister that gives a sermon, we have silent prayer, we sing together, we prepare food, and then we go out into the community and help the seniors, the kids, the people who are housebound. That’s basically what we do and where my ⁓ background lies. Now,
I first became aware of the need to help legacy artists stay housed, to stay in their homes here in San Francisco. As you might know, it’s the second most expensive city in the nation to live in as far as rent, food. Just the cost of living here is crazy. so…
We’re working with the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development
and myself with my personal savings retirement to create these types of social housing projects where culture and low-income artists can find a home.
And ⁓ our projects show that with cultural investment, social housing ⁓ can be sustainable, inclusive, and live under one roof with dignity.
So the building here in San Francisco has three floors. The first floor is the event space. The second floor has three ⁓ one-bedroom apartments. And the top floor has 11 what are called single-resident occupancy rooms. Those will be, ⁓ we’re transforming into ⁓ two Airbnb
rentals. The rest of them are sustainable low-income artist studios for San Francisco Bay area artists. So the building has a historic footprint so we’re able to utilize some of those types of historic register and grants and funding for that.
It’s, our social purpose is to preserve local culture and to give working artists a place to live while they create amid the gentrification that’s happening with the big tech taking over all of the affordable housing places downtown, so.
So instead of artists being displaced by development, we’re building development that depends on artists. And it’s inclusive. So
what else?
We’re collaborating with city arts departments, housing, tenderhood, neighborhood development corporation, theater bay area, and a number of other local neighborhood programs. We’re continuing our outreach with an organization called Replate, and we are ⁓ in active negotiations with Mayor Lurie, the new.
billionaire mayor of San Francisco who’s actually so down to earth and so attuned to the needs of the whole city, not just the big tech empire. So we’re very grateful that he’s there.
The outcome goal is a proof of concept showing that small-scale adaptive reuse can stabilize the community and create civic equity through inclusion and the arts.
while doing our outreach for the neighborhood.
And do you want to hear about the rural project we have in the works? I am originally from Maine, where it is freezing cold six months out of the year.
Michelle Kesil (09:24)
Sure, go for it.Axel Osterberg Gentley (09:36)
but just beautiful and we’re looking at a project in Calais, Maine, which is one of the cities right on the Canadian border in northern Maine. And the property profile, it’s ⁓ two commercial spaces and three residential units with another third floor that’s undeveloped that we’re going to turn intothe same thing.
⁓ studios and Airbnb rooms so we have an automatic income the property has a first floor commercial lease that’s already in place with a gym that’s well ensconced and that brings in ⁓ I’d say about $600 a month more than the mortgage note ⁓
So I will have one of the studios. We’ll have two to rent and then the third floor to bring in all the seasonal, the tourists coming over from Canada, Quebec, Montreal, ⁓ and St. John’s. So it’s got… ⁓
It’ll act as an anchor for the downtown revitalization that’s happening there right now. All of the cities and towns along our northern border are…
getting the lighting up because people there are scared about what may be to come politically. so I know that in these traditionally ⁓ slow markets, our vision to convert the
spaces into the multi-use studio and theater for local performances, visiting artists, films, community dinners, youth arts and the like, and then the residential units will serve as
An anchor we’re partnering with the Sunrise County Economic Council and the Calis Economic Development Office to ⁓ access the rural business and community facilities and partnerships grants. And our model is to demonstrate that rural Maine can host the same creative community energy as urban centers just scale to its landscape and local identity.
So, yeah, and then we have another plan to…
It’s to create a potato vodka factory.
Using the old shoe factory that’s up in a rustic County Dexter shoes had an old facility up there. We want it. We want to turn it into a potato vodka factory Maine is second in the nation for potato production second only to Idaho and Sorry, our potatoes are better. No ⁓ tastier and easier to cook though. No, but
They have a huge potato production and there is not a single potato vodka factory in the country that I’m aware of yet. I know that there have been some specialty vodkas by different distilleries in the nation, but I think that once we move into that,
that property up in Calais, then we’ll be able to help revitalize that whole county, which is traditionally underpopulated except during potato season and very poor as far as the demographics go up in Maine. So it would be a way to help bring an industry to the region and to…
help revitalize it in that way. ⁓ and why do ⁓ both of these sites matter? Why do both of these properties matter? They’re sort of bookends. One is very rural, one is very urban, and they,
they’re bookends of one philosophy that cultural equity resides everywhere.
It requires both city and country to achieve the balance that we…
neat. It’s too often the city has every cultural advantage and every cultural woo! Like we can go here there’s 20 different kinds of restaurants and four theaters to go see live theater and there are comedy clubs and dance halls and pool halls and bars and in rural communities they have to go maybe they have to go 40 miles to
go to a movie theater. Maybe they have to go 20 miles to get to the grocery store. we will be filling a void in cultural presence in ⁓ underserved communities. And because we’re not just arts driven, we’re also community stewardship.
we offer more than just a theater or ⁓ a place to go for a potluck dinner once a month, like they like to do out in the country. ⁓ I think that the live work spaces, ⁓
are models for anti-gentrification. The arts-driven housing model can provide a permanent cultural infrastructure, not temporary grant cycles that help artists to sustain their place in society. It can be easily replicated. The Sanctuarey model can be applied to any town with empty storefronts.
where there are creative people that are hungry for space, or they’re looking for a place to do their work. And it also provides legacy housing for artists who have built a community’s identity for years and years. They deserve stability in their later years, and this model provides that for them.
So it’s basically Sanctuarey is proof that art and housing are not competing needs. They’re the same heartbeats of a thriving community. And whether it’s at 22 Hyde Street in San Francisco, 229 Main Street in Calais, we’re not just reopening buildings, we’re opening possibilities. And if…
your listeners believe in that type of thing, is room for them to join with us. And what else? I have a dog named Tuffy. He is a good kid. So ⁓ what else can I tell you? What else?
Michelle Kesil (19:08)
How are you collaborating with investors?Axel Osterberg Gentley (19:15)
That is one of my challenges. I am working with different groups that are 501c3 funding. ⁓adjacent, associated. So right now it’s just been the traditional funding routes for nonprofits. Capital gains campaign, ⁓ and outreach through ⁓ grants funding, through, you know, there’s, except for federal grants right now, I have a lot of applications.
in the community for community assistance to ⁓ join us through whether it’s a group like Salesforce or up in ⁓ here in San Francisco or in Maine with the Maine Potato Growers Association and the Sunrise County Economic Council.
They, those are the, ⁓ so I’m working with the city government here and with the city and county governments in Maine to augment my investor portfolio.
Michelle Kesil (20:51)
Awesome.Axel Osterberg Gentley (20:52)
open to any input about that. That’s our big challenge. I’m sure that’s everyone’s, I’m sure that’s a lot of people’s big challenge. yeah. And.Michelle Kesil (21:06)
Yeah,absolutely. I understand.
Axel Osterberg Gentley (21:12)
So I could tell you about our recent, my latest play I wrote. It’s quite political.Michelle Kesil (21:21)
Well, this show isfocused on investors. ⁓ Sounds awesome though. But yeah, maybe if people are looking to collaborate with you or learn more, where can people find you?
Axel Osterberg Gentley (21:25)
Yeah, they can invest in the place.We are at ⁓ www.sanctuarey.org. That’s our website. ⁓ We have our charter here in California, in Colorado, and in Maine. So we’re incorporated in those three states. ⁓
you investors in each ⁓ area. We’re, you know, we’re sweeping the nation. We have a, we have, you know, East Coast, West Coast, and then the dead center of the country with Denver. So you can get in touch with all three teams, the Denver team, the Maine team.
the San Francisco, the California team through the website, really simple. yeah. Do you have any other questions or?
Michelle Kesil (22:44)
Yes, sir.No, I think that’s good. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. Thank you for being here.
Axel Osterberg Gentley (22:55)
Thank you so much for taking the time to include me. I really appreciate it.Michelle Kesil (23:00)
Sure. And for the listeners that are tuning in, you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Axel who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you on our next episode.
