Kailash Ecovillage is a local inspiration. They took a typical apartment building, yard, and parking lot in Portland and built an intentional community; reclaiming pavement, growing food, hosting events, and fostering community. kailashecovillage.org youtube.com/watch?v=iCGXVk…

Another inspiration for our project is Lost Valley Educational Center. They have combined land stewardship and coliving intentional community with a wide variety of permaculture educational opportunities. Located a few hours south of our target property in Oregon, they are well worth a visit!

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The Admin building was used and maintained by the previous owners. It contains six large classrooms, a dozen small to medium offices, and a 300 seat theater. We would use these spaces for events, education, coworking, performance, startup incubation, and private member offices.

What sort of events and activities would you do in our gym? Two basketball courts, 100x100ft with 30ft ceilings, 30x100 shuffleboard, 30x60 stage, locker rooms. Sports, aerial arts, climbing, roller skating, drone racing, ... what else? #intentionalcommunity

Potential intentional community membership levels. Full time: Live on site and fully participate in a pod. Off-site: Access to non-residential amenities, partial pod participation. Comets: Occasional visits where they participate like a full time member. Which would you choose?

The first property we pursued for the CoDwell intentional community project was Southern Vermont College. The dorms, classrooms, manor, fields, forest, and other amenities were a great fit. We continue to search for other properties to consider if Laurelwood doesn't work out.

The Science / Home Ec building has sadly not been maintained as well as the others. We're hopeful it can be restored. Labs for science projects and startups, auditorium as a backup theater, home ec micro kitchens for food projects and education... So many possibilities!

Mia, one of our founding members, plans to join the Garden / Permaculture pod and also contribute to the Homeschooling pod. Mia joins us from New England with a background in early childhood education as well as experience with cannabis cultivation and businesses.

A successful intentional community aligns on various norms and policies. Sparr wants to allow legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco in at least some private spaces, and not allow heroin or meth at all. Founding members will decide where to draw the lines between those extremes.

We have a long list of priorities to balance when choosing a property, including... Price Financing options Existing improvements Zoning Natural features City/Airport distance Transit options Natural disaster risk Local politics What else should we be considering?

The Laurelwood property includes an orchard with about 300 productive fruit trees. Most are apples, with fewer pears and plums as well. The region should also be good for figs, and we'll try some other less common fruit trees. What orchard fruit would you help us cultivate?

The Laurelwood property includes a small vineyard. It was productive a decade ago but has been left to grow wild since. We expect to restore and expand it. Located in the Chehalem Mountains Laurelwood District AVA, we could join some existing winery tours open to the public.

Based on past and current interest, we will likely launch with at least these 3 pods: Maker / Builder Garden / Permaculture Homeschool / Family What other pod would you want to live with, a group of 10-20 people who share some specific goals and passion and lifestyle?

We intend for the residents to own the property. This could happen early, if we form a co-op with smaller buy-in, then secure a loan. It could happen later if early investors/co-owners are bought out by residents over time after the initial debt is repaid. What else might work?

Interesting properties that didn't make our top 10 candidates list: loopnet.com/Listing/500-Sc… Office zoned for residential conversion, 178k sqft on 73 acres. $2.1M in central PA. loopnet.com/Listing/133-He… Military base of 89 homes and many amenities. $5M in rural WV.

More interesting properties not quite right for us: zillow.com/homedetails/84… RV park and marina in OR with horse facilities for $900k. theoldhouselife.com/2025/01/17/32-… 32 bedroom "cottage" for $3.1M in the MA. crexi.com/properties/176… tiny college in RI going to auction next month.

For the 3rd time in 30 years, a residential developer aims to turn the Laurelwood school's farmland into a subdivision. We're assisting the locals and their attorney with research and insight in opposition. We share the vision of that land's use remaining primarily agricultural.

Although our project is on pause right now, we're still keeping an eye out for interesting properties. Here's a mansion and dorm with conference rooms, offices, garages, 60+ bedrooms, 3 miles from downtown Syracuse NY for $1.5M. crexi.com/properties/163…