On Tuesday the 28th, we’re getting together to talk about how to pool our financial and political power. We believe that the people who live and work in New York City should be able to create the city we want together, and that permanently affordable work space is at the heart of economic justice, cooperative power, and neighborhood resilience. We’re writing to give you more information on the Real Estate Investment Cooperative teaching and learning event on Tuesday, April 28th at our new and final location: New Middle Collegiate Church on 2nd Ave and 7th Street (112 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003). We’ve moved locations yet again due to the enormous amount of interest. We can now seat 300 people, so bring your friends!

With $1.1M in pledges by future members of a real estate investment cooperative for NYC, we know we have hit a nerve. We hope to steer this collective enthusiasm toward the endurance work of building a set of political and financial tools that we can use to save and create NYC’s vital affordable places, as well as organizing infrastructure that reflects the diversity of our City.

We’re thinking of calling it The NYC Anti-Vanishing Fund. We hope that reveals some of our motivations, and resonates with some of yours.

Please arrive at 6pm to take your seat and meet all of the great organizations that are working on cooperative development, cultural organizing, and community land trusts. At 6:30pm, we will begin a series of short presentations about financing the acquisition of buildings, about the importance of resale covenants to keep our spaces affordable in perpetuity, and about the impact of cooperative investment on affordable work space in New York City. We will hear from representatives of Fourth Arts Block, the Democracy at Work Institute, Brooklyn Law School Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship, Sure We Can, the Street Vendor Project, and the Sunview Luncheonette.

We will be livestreaming the event (details TBA on our facebook page) and Keith Harrington of Shoestring Videos will also record the event and make it available online.

See you on the 28th at 6pm at New Middle Collegiate Church on 7th Street and 2nd Ave, 112 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003 We’ve moved locations to this last and final spot due to the enormous amount of interest. We can now seat 300 people, so bring your friends!

Please bring $10 cash if you are ready to join as a member on Tuesday the 28th, as we will begin collecting member dues. Bring $20 if you’d like to join as a member for $10 and donate $10 for someone who cannot afford membership at this time. Visioning sessions, writing by-laws, and board elections come next!

Thanks for collaborating with us on the future,

Your interim NYC Real Estate Investment Cooperative Facilitation Team

Paula, Caroline, David, Ted, Devin and Greg (and Chiara, our awesome intern-on-loan)

If you’d like to help set up, welcome folks, and/or clean up, please let us know! Just email info@nyctbd.com and tell us that you’d like to help make the event run smoothly by showing up early and/or staying late.

PS: Want to learn more about this before we meet on the 28th?

If you’d like to read about precedents for pooling money to invest in community spaces, we suggest the following readings on mechanisms for pooling money, on permanently affordable space, and on pooling money for permanently affordable space:

POOLING MONEY

How Direct Public Offerings work (this is how Ben & Jerry’s raised their first chunk of money)

Seeking Capital, Some Companies Turn to ‘Do-It-Yourself I.P.O.’s,’ New York Times (July 31, 2013), http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/business/smallbusiness/seeking-capital-some-companies-turn-to-do-it-yourself-ipos.html (More Direct Public Offering details: http://www.cuttingedgecapital.com/resources-and-links/direct-public-offering/; or you can watch a video )

Workers Diner In NYC (a Direct Public Offering that could have worked, if only enough people had wanted to own a diner business together): http://www.geo.coop/story/crowd-financing-worker-cooperatives

How Community Economic Development Investment Funds work in Alberta, Canada: http://acca.coop/coop/white-paper-accelerating-co-operative-development-in-alberta/

The Cooperative Fund of New England: http://www.cooperativefund.org/

A summary of Investment Cooperatives in Minneapolis and Canada: http://ilsr.org/rule/community-ownership-commercial-spaces/investment-cooperatives/

How the Northeast Investment Cooperative works in Minneapolis: http://neic.coop/membership-info

How Community Bonds work in Toronto: http://communitybonds.ca/community-bond/

Iroquois Valley Farms, LLC, using a regulated security to invest in farmland: http://iroquoisvalleyfarms.com/

PERMANENTLY AFFORDABLE SPACE IN NEW YORK CITY

Cooper Square Committee Community Land Trust and Mutual Housing Association: https://coopersquare.org/

The New York City Community Land Initiative and Community Land Trusts: http://nyccli.org/about/mission-and-strategies/

Community Land Trust Resources for Commercial Properties: http://cltnetwork.org/topics/commercial/

POOLING MONEY TO MAKE PERMANENTLY AFFORDABLE SPACE



Mietshaeusersyndikat: www.syndikat.org (sorry! in German!)

A Cooperative Bakery Tied to a Community Land Trust in the UK: http://www.2up2down.org.uk/

Go to the GEO front page