Cohousing-L Mailing List: Purchase of Nearby Property to Expand Community

[Meg Lessard (m.k.lessard]

A sub-group of residents at Richmond Cohousing (Richmond, VA) is looking to
purchase a nearby property to expand our community. The property of
interest currently has a small multifamily building. The process would
involve purchasing the parcel, renovating the existing units, and selling
units to owners. The sale of the units would repay the residents that made
the initial investment (who don't want to lose money, but are not looking
for a significant return). The new land/units would be incorporated into
the existing LLC that our cohousing community legally operaturates under.

Our hope is that this expansion would allow our community to grow, expand
the diversity of residents able to purchase, and to increase our green
space. While the property isn't on the market, we wanted to be prepared to
act should it, or another, be ready to sell. And, that this exercise would
give us better insight on affordable housing which has always been a desire
to include in our community.

We are actively reaching out to local contacts, including lawyers, to guide
through this process. But hoped there might be some in the cohousing world
that might share similar experiences, lessons learned, or insights.

Have any other communities expanded in a similar way?

Thanks (as always) for your words of wisdom!

Meg
Richmond Cohousing Member (Richmond, VA)
info [at] richmondcohousing.com
www.richmondcohousing.com