Sidebar: this thread has been so great, truly the google group at its best. 
Thanks everybody who contributed so far.  

-Alex 


-- 
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia



On Friday, April 13, 2012 at 9:37 AM, Eli Malinsky wrote:

> We are an example of an organization that started with a rental model
> and then "graduated" to an ownership model. We rent 24,000 sq ft and
> own 36,000 sq ft (remember, our model is a bit different than a
> traditional coworking space - we include private offices).
> Interestingly enough, our third space will be another rental - 10,000
> sq ft. I love renting - lots of freedom. But, we felt vulnerable (what
> if our great landlord sold the building?) and the issue of equity was
> a concern ($500k per yer to rent?).
> 
> To raise funds, we issued a "Community Bond" - we took investments
> from people and organizations willing to support our work - and they
> will be paid back with interest. The story of our Community Bond can
> be found here: http://socialinnovation.ca/communitybonds. BUT - this
> model is specific both to our nonprofit classification and our
> jurisdiction (Ontario, Canada). Still, there may be some interesting
> bits here.
> 
> It's hard to make a hard and fast rule given the dynamism of this
> field and the variety of spaces, but I'm certainly happy we started
> with a rental space. It gave us a change to build our brand, hone our
> systems and discover what we wanted to be, before assuming ownership.
> Also - it's worth adding we would have never gotten the mortgage rate
> - or investment dollars - if we couldn;t prove a sound business model.
> 
> Eli Malinsky
> Centre for Social Innovation
> Toronto, Canada
> 
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