Redirecting some energy and efforts for lack of big events for which to build big art and community this year

[sparr]

I'm trying to organize a big coliving / maker / permaculture / burner / ... community project near Portland. Not gonna pitch it here, in an attempt to avoid moderation. Message me if you'd like to know more.

[lucky420]

I'm trying to organize a big coliving / maker / permaculture / burner / ... community project near Portland. Not gonna pitch it here, in an attempt to avoid moderation. Message me if you'd like to know more.

Best wishes for a successful endeavor.

[ygmir]

have you contacted the folks who run SOAK, the big regional there? they probably have good info and insights.

[Sham]

I'm trying to organize a big coliving / maker / permaculture / burner / ... community project near Portland. Not gonna pitch it here, in an attempt to avoid moderation. Message me if you'd like to know more.

I'm curious. Feel free to give an overview if you want.

[sparr]

My plan is to buy 200 acres about 30 minutes west of Portland, including an old boarding school. The property has a dozen buildings including 150 bedrooms (mostly dorms, some apartments and houses), a big commercial kitchen and some smaller kitchens, 14k sqft of wood / welding / auto shops, 100k sqft of other functional space (classrooms, offices, etc) to use as-is or turn into more shops, art installations, etc.

I want to get about a hundred people living there, and some more using the shops and property on a regular basis while living elsewhere, in a sort of meta intentional community, with smaller groups (5-20 people in each "pod") each having a more defined focus and shared passions.

Specifically in the context of BM and this post, I want to bring people on board who build big art and theme camps. I want to provide a place for outfitting art cars, assembling large art installations before/after the burn or other events, etc. I also want to eventually host a small regional burn, in addition to other camping festival sorts of events (circus, ren faire, spiritual, etc).

The website is http://CoDwell.org and I'd love to talk to anyone who would be interested in getting involved, either individually or as the leader/organizer of a group (existing or to-be-assembled) of 5-20 people with some shared goals.

[lucky420]

Boop

[some seeing eye]

Thanks Sparr for taking on this project.

The land and buildings were the project of a bad guru. https://culteducation.com/group/1175-sw ... abuse.html It's quite surprising to me how many people I know who were somewhat involved in Swami Chetananda's cult. (I also know an otherwise normal person who fell into NXIVM) His center in Portland is being redeveloped into low income housing.

That location is distant from Portland, but cheap burner warehouse space is hard to find in Portland. Breitenbush Hot Springs is also a similar live-work setup. There is not a huge amount of work out there, but today remote work is what the cool kids do.

Best with the project!

[sparr]

Unfortunately I've given up on this project. We weren't able to find a lender that could give us achievable terms on a mortgage. I hope that someone can buy and do something great with this property. It would make an amazing year round burner community, given the existing activity spaces, residential spaces, shops, and land.

[Sham]

Unfortunately I've given up on this project. We weren't able to find a lender that could give us achievable terms on a mortgage. I hope that someone can buy and do something great with this property. It would make an amazing year round burner community, given the existing activity spaces, residential spaces, shops, and land.

There are pretty specific things that banks look for when lending large sums of money. Home mortgages are easy, as they always have the home as collateral. They also look at track record--for instance if Marriott had a plan for developing that site, they would most likely loan endless money. They also look at money put down by the borrower. If it's selling for $2 million and you put down $1million, they feel that you're vested in the project and they could recoup their loan money should it be defaulted.
Sparr, your ideas for this project are great, but over a short time may not produce the income needed to pay off the debt.
Still, I love the idea of a 200 acre burner retreat and playpen.

[sparr]

Three years ago I failed to buy this property in Oregon and instead got a place in MA where I was able to start building a community and hosting events. Sadly we suffered a large fire and that community has dissolved as people moved away. I'm going to be trying again somewhere in the next 3-12 months, and I'm reviving this idea for the large property in Oregon. Sadly it's 50 acres instead of 200 now, but it still has all the other amenities, and I dream of seeing people collaborating on big art there. I'm going to try to pivot the idea to being more appealing to business lenders, probably with an educational focus, perhaps with a non-profit component similar to https://www.lostvalley.org/ (although mostly different educational subjects).