Changes are underway at District Hall in the Seaport, a space known for bringing together the Boston innovation and startup community through programs, networking events and free, public workspace.
Innovation Studio sent an email to clients and supporters this week that its time managing and operating District Hall will terminate at the end of 2023.
The move marks the end of a 10-year public-private partnership agreement that saw the Seaport rise from a relatively barren area into a pricey neighborhood known for its ever-rising condo towers and growing concentration of corporate headquarters.
The nonprofit Innovation Studio, formerly known as Venture Café, began running District Hall as a civic innovation center in 2013. The space was the result of a payment in lieu of property taxes (PILOT) agreement between the Boston Planning and Development Agency (formerly known as the Boston Redevelopment Authority), CIC and an arm of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, which owned the property. CIC held the lease for District Hall and contracted Innovation Studio to manage operations and programming for the space.
In 2015, WS Development purchased District Hall as part of its acquisition of the Seaport Square project and honored the public-private partnership.
The decade-long PILOT agreement ended on June 6, Daniel Enríquez Vidaña, president of Innovation Studio, wrote in an email to some members of the Innovation Studio community on Tuesday.
Ashley Medeiros, vice president of program strategy and partnerships at Innovation Studio, said District Hall was created to foster an innovation community in the Seaport, which didn’t exist in 2013. District Hall is one of several spaces run by Innovation Studio, including the Roxbury Innovation Center and Biz Bodega in Providence, Rhode Island.
Medeiros said they knew for a long time that the agreement would terminate after 10 years. But, they “hoped” there would be a chance for them to stay.
“It’s hard for us to walk away and to not have an opportunity,” Medeiros said. “Losing this ability to operate a space and to generate some revenue to help our programs, it’s a really hard hit for us right now.”
But District Hall itself will continue, under new management. WS told BostInno that its time supporting the innovation ecosystem in the Seaport is not over with the end of the PILOT agreement.
The future of District Hall
For now, visitors to District Hall won’t notice much of a change.
Innovation Studio and CIC confirmed that they have extended the lease and management arrangement through the end of 2023. Medeiros said the space will continue to be open to the public for co-working and events.
After that, Medeiros said Innovation Studio will no longer be involved in District Hall. Medeiros said the team is looking for different opportunities for where they want to go next.
“We would love to continue to operate spaces like this and to help ecosystems grow and be able to specifically continue to help diverse entrepreneurs from across Boston and the region,” Medeiros said.
Regarding the future of the space, a CIC spokesperson said “We are proud of the great success of District Hall over the past 10 years, and look forward to seeing what the future holds.”
The BPDA referred questions to WS Development, who said in a statement that it is committed to continuing the operations of District Hall for at least 10 years.
"We are planning some refresh work in connection with that extension, and our commitment to the future of District Hall has always been focused on serving and promoting Boston’s innovation ecosystem and expanding our support for a diverse range of programs, events, and organizational partners,” a spokesperson for WS said in a statement.
The results of a decade-long project
Over the last 10 years, Medeiros said District Hall has hosted more than 400,000 attendees at meetings and events, of which 79% have been focused on innovation. She added that they’ve also donated $6.9 million worth of space for these gatherings.
Medeiros said the team is proud of their work in the Seaport, but also their efforts to connect underrepresented founders from across the city to this growing neighborhood and its resources.
“District Hall and the investments made by so many paid off,” Medeiros said. “It’s become what it was designed to become. We were more than honored to be a part of that.”
District Hall has become a go-to spot for founders, like Hunter Grobmyer. He’s building a business called General Management Group, which runs an automated sourcing platform for large companies selling small businesses.
Grobmyer is from Missouri and turned to District Hall as a place to meet members of the local innovation community. He said he now works from there at least three days a week.
“District Hall provides something that a coffee shop, for me, doesn’t. Where I’m sitting there, I’m working, and I’ll look over at the table next to me and when we’re both not on calls, I can just go over to that person and be like, ‘Hey, what do you do?’” Grobmyer said.
Grobmyer hopes to see an innovation environment continue in the District Hall space, but he also understands that the developer may need to make some changes or scale the space to bring in revenue.
“I think there’s some things that they might be able to add to it. That’s hard to do and it takes management and things, but if there’s a way for it to stay, I think it’s awesome and does a lot of good,” Grobmyer said.
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