LaLoggia Co-Housing Project
Project Design
La Loggia Phase I will include housing for 50 as part of 4 stories high complex from the lower road up to the current site of the Arcosanti pool. The complex will include its own greenhouses/food production, power generation and waste recycling facilities.
The corporation will lease the greenhouse to a CSA group and lease commercial spaces in the incubator to various interconnected ventures as stipulated in the Industrial Ecology section.
LaLoggia Greenhouse Complex will be built as self contained modules using a series of easier-to-get smaller grants. This will include the construction of a living machine sewage treatment
Budget and Financing
The project includes a budget of $3.6 million; 3 million for the 50 person multi-use structure and 600,000 for the required road to assure Yavapai County approval of the building project.
Financial plan will include the development of a solid and sustainable business plan complementing Cosanti Foundation’s plans to move Arcosanti along quickly than has been the trend line in the past.
Business model will initially focus on housing grants, finance the incubator with SBA grants. Plan will include a mix of condo ownership, timeshare (alumni, staff and others), and small business incubator.
This package - condo/co-housing sales and financing, commercial leases, grants, etc – designed synergistically based on Arcology principles of integrated design will lead to development of interrelated projects (La Loggia, greenhouse, road, moving oxidation pond, etc) that will add to the total real estate and business value of the project.
Anticipated revenue streams would include leases/rents, fees, small conference hosting, eco-tour type hospitality. The surplus revenue from the non-profit corp would be used to seed anther such corp that would be the next scale up.
Marketing and Promotion of Project
The financing of the project will be backed up by an innovative marketing plan that will take advantage of both Arcosanti’s and Paolo Soleri’s unique voice in the national and international architectural community as well in larger debate about sustainability and limits to growth and consumption to position this project as way for people to buy in on innovative project that walks the talk of the burgeoning green movement.
Ownership
Ownership will be made available in a variety of ways. La Loggia Project will be owned and managed by a corporation but will be also accountable to Cosanti Foundation the organization which oversees the existing site.
The Foundation will be awarded shares as a minority voting shareholder in exchange for use of its property. This will not preclude a rental or lease agreement but the details of this are to be arranged at a later stage.
Notes will be offered to the public as a way to invest in socially responsible development shares will be nonvoting.
Timeshares and Condos can be purchased by interested parties who want to walk the talk of sustainability. By purchasing a portion of the project they will have a share in voting how the facility is governed.
Rentals may be offered and will be designed for people of limited means who want to live at the facility. A delegate may be selected to represented any and all rentals.
Arcosanti Workers – Workers from the larger Arcosanti community who work at the facility may also be represented in governance meetings.
Scalability and Replication
A plan that is packaged up and delivers to Cosanti the money it needs so it can concentrate on its mission – oversee the education and promotion to the world about the benefits of Arcologies. If the plan were well thought out, it would truly be designed to a) work and b) be a test model for something larger. After this modest effort works out, the same pattern (grants/sales/cohousing/consensus/business/hospitality/education/healthfully profitable/sustainable) can scale up and repeat to then make the Teilhard Center a 200 person living space and 400 person conference center, then the 500 person West Crescent, etc.