When Josh Copp moved to 248 McKibbin Street, he joined what the Times called "an instant artistic fraternity that is all but extinct in New York." That same 2008 profile made 248 briefly famous as a post-graduate animal house where residents partied non-stop and "people honk saxophones and bang drugs at 3 a.m."
Today, dirty, dilapidated factory lofts are being renovated into expensive units that have attracted a different kind of tenant, professionals who value a good night's rest over music and mayhem. "Now it's a real apartment building," Copp says. "In the past, everyone would be rehearsing. In more recent years, we had to make agreements with our neighbors: If you let us make noise during the day, we won't make noise at night."
Copp also has moved on, trading in the perilous finances and iffy future of a rock band for more lucrative and secure work in postproduction and music for commercials. At the end of the month, he and his songwriting partner will join an exodus of musicians seeking cheaper and more lenient digs in Gowanus. But the search wasn't easy, he recalls: "Gowanus has some raw spaces but, like Bushwick, there are more and more professional people. Wherever you looked, the landlord immediately said, 'No noise. No band rehearsal.' "
Replies