Baltic Creative CIC

Established in 2009, Baltic Creative CIC builds and supports creative and digital communities.

It started with a group of visionaries, local likeminded voices who wanted to find a way to stop the displacement of creative and digital businesses by developers and market forces. They were sick of seeing history repeating itself decade after decade – creative companies and artists moving into rundown areas for their cheap rents, gradually revitalising them, then being forced out when profit-driven developers eventually take over.

They wanted to stop this cycle, and their answer was the Baltic Creative CIC. The idea was simple: what if the creative and digital sector owned the property it was regenerating? So instead of being nudged out as values rose, the sector benefited and was able to reinvest in itself?

With the help of Liverpool Vision, our Community Interest Company secured a £4.5m grant from ERDF and NWDA. We used this to purchase and refurbish 18 warehouses in a semi-derelict area of Liverpool called the Baltic Triangle. Then we opened our doors to Liverpool’s best and brightest creative and digital businesses.

That’s the story of how the Baltic Creative CIC was born. But with new investment just around the corner and a waiting list of new tenants, it’s a story that’s really only just beginning.

We now own and manage over 120,000sq/ft of flexible, affordable workspaces – housing just over 170 businesses operating in the creative and digital industries. Through the CIC model, Baltic Creative CIC reinvests all surpluses back into the property, the tenants and the sector and is playing a vital role in the regeneration of the Baltic Triangle and the wider Liverpool City Region as a whole.