Narara Land Back on the Market

An email arrived from the real estate agent at Colliers: “Thank you for your previous interest in this property. We have been instructed to seek further offers on the property ...........sale by negotiation”- so we assume the Narara land has been revalued and is officially back on the market.

I emailed out to about 100 people informing them of this situation but nothing much came back from any member that clearly takes us forward.

I rang a developer with financier contacts. We have been put in contact with each other by the Illabunda village project director, who speaks very highly of his skills and efforts as he helps their development move forward. It is at a time when, with a consultant, we are working numbers and structure eg SCEV Inc could sign a conditional contract with a deposit of $500,000 (say 25 members @ $20,000 with later benefits if we are successful and if possible, of eg discount on house/block + opportunity and satisfaction in sculpting the village).

We would be happy to lead this push but feel we need some kind of partnership with a developer (a bit like what we had with Greenedge). During a call to aforementioned developer, he indicates that his steps would be to speak to his financiers, secure the land then perhaps begins talks with SCEV Inc Assoc. I presume it’s all about control of the project. My gut says that at the moment he is the best option. At the same time I have been talking to a US developer Ann Zabaldo, who sings the praises of their partnership model and says: ‘let the developers do the bricks and mortar, approvals, budgets, Lyndall, and the community concentrates on the outreach, marketing, et cetera.’ She has a game called the Timeline game, which can take us through all the steps involved in doing a development. I have asked her to come out here for a holiday and ‘play’ this game with us. She’s never been to Oz before and is considering it!

We like her ‘joint venture’ model but at this stage I’m not hearing anything from Australian developers about any partnership arrangements....and why not, I ask? Wouldn’t working with a group and securing pre-sales greatly reduce the risk for any developer? I heard about one developer using a partnership model, talk about 70% pre sales and sometimes 100%....with a waiting list to purchase a home in their development. How cosy could a developer feel in those circumstances!

I am off to the US for 3 weeks and meeting up with Ann Zabaldo to tap into her experience. I also plan to learn more about the governance and decision making model, Sociocracy and learn from some of the cohousing models on the east coast. I plan to visit the ecovillage, Earthaven in North Carolina where Diana Leafe Christian lives. She wrote: ‘Creating a life together’, a book that has both excited and informed me about community living. I have 2 copies of this book if any of you would like to borrow it sometime.

Before I go, if you have anything you’d like me to check out or ask while I’m visiting these people and places in the US, please send me an email – it will help me focus too.