By Jorge Casuso

This weekend, what is likely the first artists housing complex built in Santa Monica - a 22-unit courtyard complex on the corner of Tenth Street and Pico Boulevard -- opened its doors to bidders. And more than 100 prospective tenants already have submitted applications, according to the developer.

"They are the only artists lofts that have ever been built from the ground up and that probably ever will be built," said Carl Lambert, the local developer who struggled for three years to finance and build the project. "It was very difficult. There were a lot of delays, but the demand has been tremendous."

Although the towering loft spaces are ideal for artists, the prices the new market rate apartments will fetch - one bedrooms will likely go for $1,200, two bedrooms for close to $2,000 -- probably will be out of range for the struggling artists who need the spaces the most.

"In some respects, it's almost too finished for artists, I admit it," Lambert said. "But the city required that I finish them off. This is for the person that wants something edgy. It's a cool hip place to live."

Half of the units in the gray concrete complex have finished wood floors, although all have the metal sinks in the kitchens favored by artists for cleaning their tools. The units also have plenty of balcony space - some of them on three sides. Tiles, coins, crystals and other tidbits are embedded on the floors of the public spaces to add an artistic edge.

The units that face Pico are zoned commercial and have cement floors, ideal for painters and sculptors. Lambert hopes these will attract artists who want to live and work in their spaces.

"I went through a bizillion applications," Lambert said. "I asked questions about what kind of art they do. I'm really getting a lot that are in multi-media." Many of the applicants, Lambert said, work a myriad of entertainment companies that have recently located in Santa Monica.

The new complex - which includes 40 underground parking spaces -- is expected to infuse life into the long neglected "Pico Corridor," which is undergoing a $7.4 million facelift. City officials boast that the Pico streetscape improvements - which will add rows of stately trees to the busy thoroughfare -- will lend the boulevard a European flavor.

But the improvements also could increase prices in one of the city's few remaining affordable neighborhoods. Townhouses next to the new complex, for example, list for more that $300,000.

The prices will likely freeze out the artists who need spaces the most, although a voter-approved ordinance requires that a third of the units be reserved for low and moderate income tenants.

The demand for artists spaces increased when "Drescherville," the funky arts complex in the city's industrial corridor along Olympic Boulevard, was recently sold by Lambert to Santa Monica Studios. The company will build sound stages and some live-work spaces that likely will go for between $2 and $3 a square foot.

The Drawing Room, a complex of small studios on Olympic Boulevard that provided work spaces for several dozen artists, recently shut its doors.