Event:2015/08/31 Until the Revolution Working Group

Omni "Buy the Building" working group meeting - Monday August 31, 2015

last week: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2015/08/24_Until_the_Revolution_Working_Group

BACLT

 * Yar, Matt, Libbie attended with Rick from BACLT
 * Next monthly board meeting Thursday September 10 - sometimes they skip, but hearing about us may give them reason to meet next week
 * next annual meeting is November 7
 * they own 3 properties - 3-unit building in south berkeley, 5-unit bldg in west berkeley, and a 3-house lot south of UC campus. expect 3 new housing projects this year - 2 in berkeley, one in oakland.
 * what category is Omni? "non-residential"? commercial? civic?
 * 12 seats on board, currently only 9 filled. elections happen at annual meetings
 * rick helped negotiate the Asian Law Center in SF (21 units, 10k sqf)
 * land trust mostly provides training & technical help, consultation, etc
 * need to get a preliminary title report from Old Republic to check for liens, etc
 * Rick worked with Kathy Narud (sp?) in the SF office
 * May take a long time, may have to pay October rent, especially if property is transferred directly to them. but less taxes that way. each transfer gets taxed 1.65%
 * If we got a current property value appraisal, and it came out more than $1.95M, John could write off the difference as a donation to us or BACLT and get a huge tax credit (up to 45% of the difference). But then we risk being taxed according to the appraised value.
 * could hire someone privately to assess for us, and then decide if it's worth it

ground lease

 * when and how should BACLT intervene in omni business?
 * it could be used to enforce transparency - maybe they could intervene if we stop publishing meeting notes, budget, etc
 * examples of long-drawn conflicts & hostile takeovers: Nicaragua Information Center, KPFA
 * rules about breaking the law? Rick defers to Jesse on these things.
 * they don't want to deal with all our member collectives. "herd your own cats"
 * value of building vs land?
 * http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/Property/38504359/4799-Shattuck-Ave-Oakland-CA-94609/
 * $141,129 land + $180,865 building = $321,994
 * matt thinks building value doesn't seem like it will increase, most of the increase might be land value since the 90s.

delegates

 * are we ready to propose BACLT to the delegates or should we wait until there's clear language, a ground lease to read, etc?

politics

 * yar glibly mentioned a clause which requires omni to be a "constant threat to capitalism", and rick downplayed this saying land trusts are inherently a threat. yar stayed quiet but disagrees with this...
 * rick warned us it's not super easy to just take over the land trust, have to get involved first and organize other projects. that's cool tho

next steps
1. Decide if we are going with them 2. if yes, Decide how to propose to the delegates Things to do before hearing back from the lender: To prepare we need to: * understand a boiler plate ground lease, * get info on history of land trust from Rick -Yar will contact in a couple of days * understand how to change ground lease for a commercial property, Things to do after hearing positively form the lender: * Schedule meeting with all parties
 * Send preliminary title report to Rick -
 * Go to their Thursday board meeting.
 * Omni neeeds to agree about terms we want to put into the ground lease to make sure we can do what we want to do with the property
 * Ask jesse how will purchase price be split between the land and improvements

lender

 * still waiting
 * let's drive out to his place for dinner on friday. maybe he'll be there
 * this seems very weird if you don't know who it is or have context. oh well
 * you mean lunch?
 * should we open escrow without hearing back from him? probably not

501c3

 * let's reserve jesse for next week's meeting?
 * or later this week
 * yar won't be in town next week
 * nobody from finance has done anything either
 * helen wants to be at this meeting with jesse. ping fundraising & finance lists when we have a time.
 * adding helen to thursday's pad so she's allowed to talk to jesse
 * laura emailed him asking if wednesday afternoon works

john

 * need to ask him about donation vs purchase, avoiding capital gains, transfer taxes, etc
 * want to tell him early, give him a heads up, not wait for activating the option, escrow, etc
 * "fundraising volunteers have been working hard, working towards exercising the option"

consensus email
PROPOSAL: give land beneath Omni to Bay Area Community Land Trust

This proposal is from the Fundraising working group, aka the "Buy the Building" wg, aka "Buy the Land", aka "Until the Revolution". Our meetings are Mondays at 6:30pm and open to everybody! Notes are posted here: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Calendar

After buying the building, and the land beneath it, we propose giving the land to the Bay Area Community Land Trust. Omni would then lease the land back for next to nothing ($1/century perhaps). We'd still own the building, but the land lease would have specific terms designed to ensure the use of the building into the future. Those are TBD, will be part of a future proposal (not this one). They can also be renegotiated at any point.

BACLT has many community ties with us. They held their annual meeting at Omni last fall. Their mission is to steward properties and take them off the speculative market. We feel this path best represents or values, and is also a great opportunity for our work to dovetail with regional affordable housing activism.

From their website: "The Bay Area Community Land Trust is the only non-profit organization in the East Bay committed to developing the higher density model of cooperative homeownership for low and moderate income communities. Cooperatively owned, limited equity, multi-family housing, on urban land that is permanently owned by a community land trust (CLT), allows low and moderate income families to enjoy the benefits of home ownership in a setting of maximum energy efficiency.  We contribute to sustainable living by facilitating the sharing of resources - reducing the carbon footprint by sharing appliances, common spaces and transportation.  We also promote green building, retrofitting and weatherizing, conversion to solar energy, and urban agriculture.  And the co-op model itself promotes personal and group responsibility for the environment and provides institutions through which urban dwellers can promote environmental consciousness in their surroundings through example, advocacy, and participation in community projects." http://bayareaclt.net/BACLT/Home.html