Commongrounds is a new 4-story, 50,000 s.f. $16 million development in Traverse City, Michigan cooperatively owned by nearly 600 members. It will feature a food incubator, coffeeshop, distillery, childcare center, coworking space for impact organizations and businesses, performing arts and events space, artist-in-residence space, and 24 workforce rental units. Construction began in Fall 2020, with tenants scheduled to move in by 2022.
Mission - To support, develop, and occupy cooperative real estate that meets community needs and increases quality of life in its region.
Values - The building integrates food, family, arts, and wellness to generate triple-bottom-line returns to the community and its tenant and community owners.
Vision - Commongrounds serves as a backbone for the community's people and organizations to be healthy, connected, creative, and inclusive; increase their adjacent possible and achieve collective impact on the nine dimensions of individual and community well-being. Commongrounds will provide shared value and triple-bottom-line (environmental, social, economic) returns on investment by tenants, partner organizations, and people working, living, learning, and playing in the region.
Commongrounds is a real estate cooperative with two classes of ownership:
Community-serving businesses and nonprofits that purchased a commercial condo space on the first two floors of the building. See Tenants. They vote in all but three of the board directors.
Anyone who purchases a $50 share. They vote in three of the board directors and are invited to participate in the annual ownership meeting.
Commongrounds is governed by a board of directors voted in by the owners.
Financing and governance are completely disconnected, no tenant has more say than any other, no community members has any more say than any other regardless of financial contribution, which consists of ownership and what is effectively a collective/solidarity loan. For instance, if a Community Owner contributes $1000, $50 of that goes to purchasing a Community Ownership share, and $950 is accounted for as a loan. There is a $500 minimum to be considered a loan, otherwise any amount beyond $50 is accounted for as a donation.