East Side residents invited to invest in community-owned Payne Avenue property
- Rebecca Gilbuena
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 9 hours ago
What if East Side residents could collectively own a piece of their neighborhood?
That’s the idea behind the East Side Community Investment Cooperative (ESCIC), which is inviting residents and others to invest in a community-owned property at 960 Payne Ave. ESCIC is working to purchase the mixed-use commercial and residential building as its first project, giving community members an opportunity to pool their resources, share the risks of ownership and have a voice in how the property and future investments are managed.
“There are no ways for regular community members to invest in their community outside of the ways we already know, like donations to a nonprofit,” said Paris Dunning, vice president of the ESCIC board and executive director of the East Side Area Business Association.“You can’t give a donation to your favorite business. You can go there and participate with them, but we don’t have structures in our society for you to support what you want to see on the main corridor in your town.”
ESCIC, Dunning said, creates that pathway.
The cooperative currently has more than 50 members. Rather than requiring one person to take on the financial burden of purchasing property, the model spreads the risk and potential benefits among its members.
“It isn’t a donation. It’s an investment,” Dunning said. “The preferred shares in the cooperative are intended to be an investment that gains value and adds value for the investor.”
But he cautioned that the investment is intended to be a long-term one.
“This is not a fast investment,” he said. “There are faster ways for investors to make money. But this is a way that we’re expecting will actually add value as real estate adds value.”
ESCIC’s structure also gives members a say in what happens with the cooperative’s money through a “one member, one vote” system. If the cooperative generates profits, members could eventually consider whether to return money to shareholders, reinvest in the property or pursue another community project.
“That’s the cool thing about the co-op,” Dunning said. “It is as direct as the democracy gets.”
Why 960 Payne?
Dunning said the property was selected in part because of its location and size. The building sits on a major East Side corridor and is highly visible from Payne Avenue. It also offers both commercial and residential space, while being small enough to serve as a manageable first project for a newly formed cooperative.
“It’s a really attractive asset for the community to own,” Dunning said.
The purchase also would allow ESCIC to put $200,000 in LOCAL Fund dollars toward the property, Dunning said. The funding was available for acquisition and cooperatives were eligible to use it.
A voice in neighborhood development
Liza Sterletske, co-founder of CrowBar and Voilere Spirits, joined ESCIC because she
wanted to have a voice in the future of the neighborhood where she operates her businesses.
“I think because we care very much about this community, that having a vote as a part of a team is important,” Sterletske said.
“Sometimes I think that we forget that we aren’t small. We can be big and make great decisions together when we all put our hands in the middle.”
CrowBar is currently the only organizational member, with Sterletske serving as its voting representative. For Sterletske, community ownership is also about making sure residents and local businesses have a say when development decisions are made.
“It just seemed like a natural progression for us, not only to be able to put our hands in the middle to do something good, but to help to decide how our neighborhood gets developed and who gets to have those opportunities,” she said.
Sterletske said at least 40 people attended a recent listening session hosted at CrowBar. She said residents were interested in learning more about the possibility of creating more opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
“The people that live here are very passionate about doing good in this community,” she said.
Sterletske said the cooperative represents an opportunity for residents to act collectively at a time when neighborhood development can sometimes feel beyond an individual's control.
“Because politics seem so big, or decisions like the purchase of this building seem so big, we feel very little,” she said. “And we have the opportunity if we all come together to be something bigger and to use that voice.”
Learn more about ESCIC and becoming a member at escic.coop.
Comments