$40 million equity fund for CoolTowns may be good model for NEO-CDVC Fund

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 08/20/2005 - 13:41.

A very interesting organization called CoolTown Studios is offering access to $40 million for CoolTown real estate development projects - seems some projects in Cleveland and environs would fit their criteria - and their concept may be a good model for the Community Development Venture Capital Fund we are developing for NEO. See the criteria at the CoolTown website and posted below... 

$40 million equity fund for CoolTowns

Got a cool project? CoolTown Studios is helping $40 million in real estate funds invest in model urban infill developments, $2-$7 million each. This typically translates to $10-$20 million developments. The underlying philosophy of the fund sources? They want to set a new standard for quality and innovation in real estate development. The fund is ideal for developing a model example for the surrounding neighborhood.

Here is the basic CoolTown project criteria

  • Urban/small city infill/rehab (as in the image), not suburban or greenfield.
  • Target market consisting of, but not limited to the creative class, gen xers/yers, urban boomers, entrepreneurs, women, urbanists, early adopters
  • No 'luxury' adjectives - as this essentially rules out the target market
  • Urban new urbanist/smart growth design principles

Here are the basics of the financial criteria:

  • The fund will invest in a local developer who will maintain primary control.
  • The target cities must be east of Denver.
  • 2nd and 3rd-tier cities preferred. 1st-tier cities already suffer from inflated land prices.
  • An area with strong population growth
  • The investment can be short-term or up to 8-10 years.

In addition, invested projects will have an advanced technology infrastructure, an added expertise of the fund's management team. It will also have the potential of tapping into a 'beta community' of qualified residential and business tenants well before construction.

Where do you find all these cool things?

I am going to look into this for the Studio Incubator. I am meeting with the Slavic Village Development Corp. about the Broadway Library this week. I agree that a lot of places in this city and region can benefit from a place like Cool Town Studios.

Again, Norm, thanks for finding the info.

Sincerely,

Alex P. Michaels

Creating the Digital Media Technology Industry

http://prelude2cinema.pbwiki.com

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