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UPDATE: Arts hub Renegade Productions will not face eviction

WATCH:  The City of Vancouver issued an eviction notice to artists at Renegade Productions, a popular fixture in the arts community.

UPDATE: This morning Renegade Productions says they will not face eviction and it will address the City of Vancouver’s safety concerns.

Previous story: Renegade Productions Inc., a popular rehearsal space for Vancouver’s music and arts community, may not be open much longer after the City issued a notice to vacate the building.

Last week, Renegade was told they had to be out out of their 25,000-square-foot space on E. 2nd Ave. and Main St. by Tuesday due to safety concerns.

“Usually you’re given a notice and a timeline and you fix [things],” says Jim Buckshon of Renegade Productions. “In this particular case, we weren’t even told what was wrong. We were just told we’re closed.”
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The City has since said they will meet with Renegade staff on Tuesday.

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In a statement the City of Vancouver writes:

“We have safety concerns with the building, raised it with the tenants and will meet with them on Tuesday to try to resolve before any formal work orders need to be issued.”

Buckshon says that without a list of what to fix and a reasonable timeline for repairs, hundreds of bookings will have nowhere else to go.

“We’ve always said that we comply with any orders they gave us immediately,” says Buckshon. “We know there’s little things–if there’s exit lights they want, we can have that done in a matter of a day or two.”

If the space does not meet city standards, some worry that many up-and-coming artists may never end up making it to the stage.

“There has got to be like 70 bands, 80 bands in this space,” says musician John Gillich. “We rely on these kinds of facilities in order to survive. And the Vancouver music scene is tough enough as it is.”

-with files from John Hua

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