Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: small scale coho

[Natalie McIntire (nmcintire]

There is a group in Portland, OR - Peninsula Park Cohousing.  They  
took an old seven unit apartment building and refurbished it and  
turned one unit into a common unit.  The sale prices of these were  
very reasonable compared to other market prices.  Since then, they  
were considering building three more units where their garages were  
(above new garages), but I don't know if that has happened yet.  Two  
guys started this, bought the original building and then sold units.   
It did seem pretty easy and fast.

Natalie McIntire
formerly from Portland

> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 17:32:37 -0600
> From: "Jared Frandson, MD" <jfrandson [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Small scale coho
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Message-ID:
>         <e3df07420803051532q988029cp19ed1188aa2f74ee [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I looked back and couldn't find this particular topic, but if it has
> been discussed before, bear with me.
>
> What do you all think of the idea of micro-cohousing?  My spouse and I
> have been long-term coho enthusiasts and while we have both lived in
> cooperative houses we have never lived in cohousing.  We have signed
> up for and participated in the development of two different coho
> projects, but for various reasons have not been involved in one that
> actually came to completion (yet).  We have some friends who are also
> interested in cooperative living but the forming cohousing groups here
> in minnesota are in various rather early stages and the existing
> cohousing group is mature and seems to see little turnover.
>
> The housing market, being the way it is, we have noticed a plethora of
> multiunit buildings for sale, for far cheaper prices than they used to
> be.  Seems like a good opportunity for retrofit cohousing.  We are
> thinking of purchasing a large 3-4 unit Victorian house and then
> condoize it in a cohousing style.  I guess this would actually be a
> cohouse, rather than cohousing.
>
> Too me this has the advantage of small scale and fast set up, avoiding
> the long development process.  Disadvantage is that with such a small
> population, losing one unit could be drastic for the project.
>
> I know of other retrofits and partial retrofits, but anyone know of
> any other small scale cohousing groups in existence?
>
> Jared.