Conference Call 3:30 Today: Abby is sick, so call from home

[Melissa Klein]

Dear Working group,

Looking forward to speaking with Ann today at 3:30.  Abby is sick today (a flu?), and she asked me to let everyone know that it's best not to come to her place-- we'll each call in from where we are.

I pasted below Abby's detailed summary to Ann from a few days ago, outlining what we hope to discuss today, so we are all on the same page.

The call numbers: (712) 775-7000    Access Code: 778648#

Best,

Melissa

 

At the moment, WVC has four site-selection options that are summarized below.  (The attached chart was an effort to compare the various options based on our most important values/criteria assuming all could be made compatible with cohousing principles.)

 

1. “Original” Iron Stone Property:  Since the call with Andrew, the general feeling is we will not be bale to build cohousing on this property.  We intend to ask him one last time whether he might be open to creating a development with a fee simple & rental components (not condo) but we are doubtful that he could develop something that we could afford.  We are preparing to let this one go (boo hoo!)

 

2. Adaptive Reuse of Property: Many of us are still interested in the option of renovating an existing building into cohouisng, possibly in conjunction with Iron Stone.  We are in the process of getting a list of properties from Andrew and seeing where that may lead.  WVC members are hopeful that this will be the most affordable option, but worried about the problem of what to do with tenants already occupying a building we want to take over. We need to discuss this with Andrew and others.

 

3. Working with Onion Flats or other "Green Builders" to purchase land and build to our specifications.  While Onion Flats did re-contact us recently, they have not responded to our Pitch Package in over 2 weeks and seem unreliable as partners.

 

4. Carpenter Lane Apartments: Since our meeting with Andrew, another property has come to our attention.  The developer’s name is Scott Siebert (http://bancroftgreen.com/) and we met with him last week to discuss how his project might be conducive to cohousing.  It was a very preliminary conversation with him asking more questions than we did!
1. Pros of this project include: We like the developer (neighborhood guy with good values); he is very committed to sustainable & quality building; excellent location (almost as good as/maybe better that Iron Stone property, across the street from food coop;) developer is open to discussing a variety of financial relationships with us (coop, long-term leases, condo;) he is open to giving us common space in a variety of way; he talked a lot about WVC “growing into the building…”
2. Cons: They are “high end builders” and the prices mentioned so far were insanely high; we would only have part of the building, at least for the first 5-10 years …

 

Given all of this, here are some of the top questions we would like to discuss with YOU:

1.     What does WVC need to know in order to move forward with these various conversations?  What sort(s) of self-education process(es) must we undergo?  Do you have suggestions for how to discern what we need to learn and how to learn it?

2.     What does it look like to work with a developer to adapt an existing building and how do we prepare for that? What are the various implications, pros/cons we need to consider?

3.     Can cohousing be done as rentals? As coops? What has been done in the past? What are the pros/cons we need to consider? How do we/can we have control without ownership?

4.     How does the fact that we may NOT be heading toward an MOU with Iron Stone affect WVC’s  agreement with CC?