We of Anna’s Jazz Island were excited to move into downtown Berkeley where there has been a push to create a vital Arts District. We were thrilled to be part of a genuine arts center, with a live theater, arts organizations and our jazz venue—10,000 square feet of cultural use. The Gaia Building has a mission for cultural use that originated in a “cultural density bonus” agreement made between the developer, Patrick Kennedy, and the city. In this current real estate market, new downtown cultural spaces can come into being only with such agreements. After lots of community discussion, our Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted to give Mr. Kennedy two extra floors of apartments from which he generates extra revenue. In exchange, ZAB also voted, and he agreed, that he would place the ground floor in cultural use and that he would divide the huge mezzanine into four spaces for arts organizations. Anna’s Jazz Island opened in late May of 2005; we use only 15 percent of all the promised cultural use space.
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