Community-Owned Real Estate

What is the problem?

The Metro Denver region’s residential and commercial real estate markets are red hot. Prices are rising faster than the incomes of many businesses and families. This is leading to the gentrification of whole neighborhoods and commercial corridors, as outside investors seek to cash in on the region’s rapidly appreciating real estate values.

Three Word Summary

This type of gentrification almost inevitably leads to displacement of long-standing businesses and residents. Whole communities are being transformed as landlords sell their properties to developers at prices current businesses and residents cannot afford.

Three Word Summary

These displacement pressures are furthering the region’s economic inequity. Because many of the gentrifying areas have historically been home to the Metro region’s Black and brown residents and business owners, gentrification-driven displacement also furthers racial inequity.

Three Word Summary

As these neighborhoods are destroyed, Denver stands on the cusp of losing the very cultural, economic, and racial diversity that makes in a vibrant and attractive city. The question that everyone who loves, respects, and honors Denver’s vibrancy and diversity is left with is, “What kind of city and region do we want Denver to be?”

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What is the solution?

CCWB’s Community-Owned Real Estate project seeks to reverse these market-driven trends by changing the way property, particularly commercial property in legacy cultural neighborhoods, is controlled and owned. Ownership and control of real estate provide agency and stability, and can unleash creativity and growth as owners no longer have to worry about displacement as their property values rise. When real estate is collectively owned, whether by business owners, community residents, mission-aligned investors, or a mix of all three, the owners have the additional advantage of growing the wealth of the community.

Commercial community ownership comes in many forms. Some examples that have been used successfully to prevent displacement around the U.S. include the following:

Land Trust — a legal trust that preserves a real estate asset or assets. Forms of land trusts that can serve commercial purposes include a commercial land trust, community investment trust, perpetual purpose trust, and mixed-income neighborhood trust. Some trusts allow tenants and other community members to invest in the trust to preserve local real estate and build wealth.
Real Estate Cooperative — a form of collective ownership in which members of a cooperative own shares and share governance power in an entity that holds the title (and mortgage) to commercial real estate. Members are typically the owners of the businesses that occupy the real estate.
Real Estate Investment Cooperative — an investment mechanism in which real estate is owned by a cooperative made up of investors who share the anti-displacement mission of the business owners.
Multi-Stakeholder Permanent Real Estate Cooperative — a cooperative ownership structure in which investor-owners take on more of the initial acquisition costs, with tenant owners and community members also holding membership shares.

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