Collett’s Corner reaches crowdfunding goal early
The country’s first crowdfunding campaign for a commercial development has eclipsed another hurdle.
Investment in Collett’s Corner, what will become one of Lyttelton’s most prominent buildings, reached its minimum goal of $300,000 on PledgeMe on Friday, meaning the contributions will go ahead.
By yesterday, $355,000 had been raised to fund the next stages of the community-minded development, with the ambitious goal of reaching a $2 million target in the next two weeks.
Camia Young, founding partner of
Ohu Development, the group behind Collett’s Corner, said the idea for the communityowned project represented ‘‘systemic change’’. The top two floors – apartment buildings – would be sold with the rest operating under shared ownership.
In 2014, legislation changed to allow an entire community to own a company without going through an expensive legal process.
‘‘People from around the country are taking notice of Collett’s Corner … I’m hearing time and time again, this is how property development should be done. Imagine a future where every building is owned by a community it serves, we would be building very different cities, they would be about connection and belonging as well as a commercial return.’’
Young bought the land in 2013 for $630,000. She hoped the system would distribute wealth ‘‘more fairly’’.
The Collett’s Corner equity crowdfunding campaign launched on February 14. Investor shares cost $100 – the minimum investment – and 20,000 shares were available. On Tuesday, 190 people ranging from government officials to local residents had pledged.
Major investors included a family trust that backed the model by matching investment up to $50,000.
Thomas Nash, the biggest investor so far, said the project on the former site of the Empire Hotel was a ‘‘flagship initiative’’.
‘‘It is regenerative, distributive and genuinely transformative.’’
Nash, a social entrepreneur at Massey University, earlier said he wanted to use his role to look at New Zealand’s role in the world, how the country was contributing internationally and what values were being projected. Situated on the corner of London and Oxford streets, the building was designed over the course of two years in collaboration with the Lyttelton community around the concept of wellbeing with a wellness centre, hospitality, retail, coworking space and apartments.
The design by In:Flux, beat about 30 entrants to win Ohu Development Ltd’s call for innovative designs last September. Young is experienced in architecture and community design, having coinstigated Christchurch based projects like Gapfiller’s Pallet Pavilion in 2012 and the XCHC in 2014.