Maple and May invest in the community with creative art studio

Belfast-based Property Company, Maple and May, who purchased the former Metropolitan College on Tower Street, Belfast earlier this year, will rent the building to local community group ‘Vault Artist Studios’ while they plan its redevelopment.

Vault Artist Studios is a group of artists working across many disciplines, including visual artists, musicians, puppeteers, photographers and filmmakers. Their collaboration with Maple and May has allowed them to occupy much needed space in the interim. Thousands of commercial and industrial buildings are vacant in towns and cities across Northern Ireland, many of which are long-term derelict sites. Vault Artist Studios seek the use of these spaces to provide a resource base for artists to flourish.

Jon Anderson, director at Maple and May said:

“The purchase of the Tower Street building is good news for those looking at regeneration of the site and home in the area. Redevelopment of any site takes careful planning and time, we are keen that our plans for the site meets the  needs of the community.

“We wanted to ensure the building was put to good use in the meantime and this partnership with Vault Artist Studios was the perfect solution. Their temporary residency allows them the flexibility they need while ensuring the building continues to be fully functioning, continuing to regenerate the area while we complete our plans”. 

Maple and May has already acquired 80 apartments and houses throughout Northern Ireland and signalled an intention to buy or develop more than 500 new homes in the next five years. 

Adam Turkington from Vault Art Studios added:

“We are pleased to be working with Maple and May on our latest new venture and look forward to making the space on Tower Street accessible to the local community for a whole range of artistic talents.

“Our presence, in otherwise vacant buildings, improves the security of sites and pours colour and energy into the surrounding community. Vault was established to use vacant space to allow creatives to collaborate, experiment and build community. This building has allowed us to more than quadruple our membership and we are giddy with excitement at the opportunities that this presents us with.”

Maple and May is a newly established profit-for-purpose property company, building new private homes and reinvesting their profits into new social homes built by Choice Housing. They are a limited company owned by Choice Housing.