SPRE Arts Space Lab

• Core tenets of Social Purpose Real Estate in arts and culture.
• Comparative analysis of urban vs. rural space precarity across Ontario.
• Shifting mindsets from individual corporate ownership to shared community land usage.

Practical Application: Participants initiate their project by mapping their local community environment and finalizing their Organizational Space Readiness Assessment.

Objective: To deconstruct complex commercial real estate terminology, allowing arts managers to confidently evaluate property opportunities, zoning restrictions, and structural lease constraints.

Key Themes Covered:

• Decoding municipal zoning bylaws and property designations.
• Demystifying commercial lease anatomy, triple-net calculations, and long-term security clauses.
• Navigating density bonuses, air rights, and multi-tenant shared facility agreements.

Practical Application: Students conduct a formal diagnostic on their current or target facility, isolating critical regulatory barriers and potential leverage points.

Friday, Oct 2, 2026 | 1:00 PM–4:00 PM EST

Objective: To master non-traditional capitalization mechanisms, reducing long-term organizational grant dependency for capital infrastructure developments.

Key Themes Covered:

• Structural design of a real estate capital stack (combining grants, loans, and equity).
• Mobilizing community bonds, crowdfunding, and social impact investments.
• Evaluating debt capacity, loan-to-value ratios, and sustainable multi-year debt servicing.

Practical Application: Formulation of a Draft Capital Stack Plan, modeling the foundational economic viability of the proposed space project.

Lecture: Friday, Oct 9, 2026 | 1:00 PM–4:00 PM EST

Objective: To establish resilient facility operational frameworks that balance community accessibility with long-term financial and asset health.

Key Themes Covered:

• Long-term facilities maintenance scheduling and capital reserve planning.
• Governance models for shared creative hubs and multi-tenant spaces.
• Managing commercial tenancies, sub-leases, and auxiliary revenue streams within non-profit structures.

Practical Application: Creation of a customized Facility Operations Plan and submission of the experiential Field Learning Log.

Friday, Oct 16, 2026 | 1:00 PM–4:00 PM EST

Objective: To integrate environmental circularity and climate action plans directly into capital asset management.

Key Themes Covered:

• Climate-resilient facility design and energy-efficiency standards.
• Navigating green eco-retrofits inside aging municipal or heritage properties.
• Circular economy principles in construction materials and venue procurement.
• Accessing municipal, provincial, and green infrastructure funding pools.

Practical Application: Production of an Environmental Action Plan detailing green efficiency targets for the project portfolio.

Friday, Oct 23, 2026 | 1:00 PM–4:00 PM EST

Objective: To design physical spaces that intrinsically embed Indigenous sovereignty, radical accessibility, and decolonial design principles from inception rather than as regulatory compliance add-ons.

Key Themes Covered:

• Honoring Indigenous community relationships, treaties, and deep land connections.
• Designing for radical accessibility that goes far beyond minimum AODA compliance standards.
• Mitigating cultural gentrification and protecting community spaces from displacement.

Practical Application: Drafting an integrated Spatial Equity & Accessibility Blueprint for the organization's space concept.

Friday, Oct 30, 2026 | 1:00 PM–4:00 PM EST

Objective: To train arts leaders in high-stakes negotiation tactics and system-level municipal advocacy to secure public and private sector buy-in.

Key Themes Covered:

• Strategic negotiation mechanics with commercial real estate developers and landlords.
• Navigating municipal planning departments and building coalitions with city councils.
• Elevating the sector narrative: Positioning creative spaces as essential civic infrastructure.

Practical Application: A live peer-to-peer negotiation simulation and stress-test workshop to finalize the narrative flow of each participant's project pitch deck.

Friday, Nov 6, 2026 | 1:00 PM–5:00 PM EST

Objective: To pitch a fully realized space development strategy to an active panel of real estate professionals, municipal leaders, and institutional funders.

Key Themes Covered:

• Professional presentation execution and spatial storytelling.
• Evaluating developer and funder critiques under real-world conditions.
• Activating community support and local cross-sector partnerships post-program.

Practical Application: Final live pitch and formal portfolio submission of the completed, investor-ready Space Vision Plan & Pitch Deck to the evaluation jury.