The historic Venus Gardens building was built in the early 1900’s as a department store and later operated as a grocery store before it was abandoned and lay vacant for several decades. The three-story building was brought back to life in 1998 when First Commerce Community Development Corporation redeveloped the structure as 30 loft-style apartments with ground-floor storefront commercial space.
Following Hurricane Katrina, GCHP purchased the building and converted its apartments and commercial spaces into residential and commercial condominiums, which enabled key community institutions Ashe Cultural Arts Center, HOPE Community Credit Union, and Young Leadership Council to purchase condominiums for their own permanent headquarters. In late 2009, Ashe Cultural Arts Center purchased the remaining unsold residential condominiums from GCHP to lease those units as affordable live-work rental space to local and visiting artists, as well as to other Central City residents.
