Commongrounds Cooperative

It's hard to believe it is almost back-to-school time already! We hope you are all are enjoying these last official days of summer and gearing up for a beautiful fall.

This summer, the Commongrounds team has been hard at work on building design and assembling the financing pieces for our project. A huge thank you to our architect, Ray Kendra, and his team at Environment Architects for their tireless work on the project; and to the rest of our building team for their work (our Construction Manager, Hallmark, and our owner representatives Ed Bailey and Nan Perez). We feel very lucky to have such a dedicated and experienced team working on the project to make it great (and within budget ;).

We expect to break ground as soon as weather allows in spring 2020! We might do some soil clean-up on the property this fall, but the bulk of the project will start in the spring with completion by summer 2021. This is an update from our original plan to break ground this summer. In June, we realized it would likely be fall at the earliest by the time our building plans and financing were complete. Since fall is not the best time to break ground on a building in northern Michigan, we decided to wait until spring and bumped back some of our other timeline accordingly. We expect to have financing and building plans, including final construction bids and subcontracts in place at the beginning of the year in accordance with a building timeline that lets us hit the ground running as soon as weather allows in spring with building completion by summer 2021.

Why the delay? As we all have heard from other real estate developers, real estate development can sometimes take longer than expected because financing, building design, and bidding are complicated pieces that must fit together in just the right way. Commongrounds is particularly complicated because of our ownership and investment/equity structure. However, we continue to make good progress and are very excited about how the pieces are coming together. We received preliminary letter of loan terms from the bank in January, but the detailed building plans and bids will allow us to finalize bank financing and a loan guarantee from the USDA. When bank financing is finalized, we can start the official process for approval by the MEDC for grant and loan support for the project, which will also take a couple of months.

Some other highlights from this summer:

- 90% Complete Building Design Plans. We're designing the building right down to the electrical outlets. After receiving zoning approval for the conceptual building and site plan, our building team got hard to work designing the guts of the building. Plans were completed at the end of July and we are receiving updated preliminary bids. After that, we'll look at how build in some cost savings without sacrificing the quality and environmental protection aspects of the building to ensure that the project stays in budget with some room for contingencies.

- Community investment. We've been collecting investment from community owners and continue to develop equity investment from other community partners. Securities law keeps us from giving too much detail on a public site right now, but we look forward to sharing a full update this fall when details are finalized. We expect to officially close this Reg CF crowdfunding in September -- so if you haven't already invested, do so now before you miss the window (and the doors, flooring, green roof, and cafe space).

-8th Street reconstruction. If you've been in TC this summer, you know that the city has been doing a major rebuild of 8th Street, right in front of our building, to transform it from an eyesore that is the butt of community jokes to the most pedestrian- and bike-friendly street in town. They are starting to lay the cycle track and sidewalks with projected completion by the end of September. We're working with other businesses in the North Boardman Lake District and the DDA to plan a party to celebrate the street opening in early October. Stay tuned for more updates!

- Full Board development. Commongrounds has operated with an agile start-up board of Kate Redman, Chris Treter, and Richard Anderson to help design and mobilize Commongrounds, the building. We are now ready to build Commongrounds, the organization, which will prepare Commongrounds to be more than just a real estate development and also a space for community events and partnership. To build the organization, we are adding additional community members to the board and leadership committees this fall in order to add more depth, brains, experience, and friendly faces to the leadership team. We'll be announcing the board this fall, including the process for filling community-owner elected board seats, and looking for additional community owner volunteers interested in getting involved in leadership committees.

That's just a taste of what we've been up to -- we'll be sharing other updates with community owners this fall include, some updates in tenant-partners, overall community investment lessons learned, and future events. If you are not already an owner and would like to stay in the loop, visit www.commongrounds.coop and you can become an owner for $50.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to seeing you on 8th Street soon!

Hello, investors! We have great news - it is (finally) time for Localstake to collect your investment in Commongrounds. We appreciate your support and patience and can't wait to move to this next phase with our owners and investors, like you.

So, what can you expect next?
1. This week - investment. Localstake will collect funds from investors (like you!) and hold in escrow until they have collected at least $250k in funds for this "public" portion of the crowd investment. If you indicated you wanted funds collected electronically, Localstake will automatically collect funds, no work required from you. If you are sending money a different way, your investment confirmation email will have instructions on how to send your funds.

As a reminder, securities law requires that all investments must come through an online third-party (Localstake) who is a registered broker dealer. Commongrounds will not have access to the financial or other private information you provide Localstake, other than your contact information. If you have questions or concerns about your funding account or the transfer, please reach out to Localstake (support@localstake.com). Other questions you can send to hello@commongrounds.coop.

Thanks for your patience in the gap between making your commitment and collecting funds: we were able to collect funds from other community investment portions of our campaign sooner, but this public crowdfunding portion has taken longer. Over 120 people pledged to invest $250k+ dollars, and everyone had to complete several steps of paperwork before funds could actually be collected. If we were doing it again, we would have planned a lower minimum amount and more staff time allocated to follow up and assistance in using the Localstake website to prevent the gap. However, we are very glad to be ready to collect funds now. Thanks for your patience with the process!

2. This week - project updates and drop-in hours. We will shortly be posting an updated project timeline on Localstake and sending owners a more detailed update with an invite to attend drop-in hours for an in-person update, as well. An updated timeline graphic is attached for a quick overview.

The short summary is that we are making great progress: building designs are 90% complete, and we are currently receiving updated estimated bids for the more detailed plans. Originally, we were working to break ground this summer, but we realized it would likely be fall at the earliest by the time our building plans and financing were complete. Since fall is not the best time to break ground on a building in northern Michigan, we decided to wait until spring and bumped back some of our other timeline accordingly. We expect to have financing and building plans, including final construction bids and subcontracts in place at the beginning of the year in accordance with a building timeline that lets us hit the ground running as soon as weather allows in spring with building completion by summer 2021.

3. Next week - investor rewards. If you remember, investors have access to certain sweet rewards depending on your investment level. Next week (or whenever you invest), look for more information about collecting on your rewards.

4. Upcoming months- ongoing owner updates and events. We took a hiatus in communications and events this summer in part because we thought y'all might be tired of hearing from us after the crowdfunding campaign; and to focus on the building design and financing process. But this fall, we'll be back in action with regular updates. Stay tuned for more insight on our tenant-partners and the building design process! If you are not already a cooperative owner, you can sign up at www.commongrounds.coop to make sure you are on the update list.

We're looking forward to building something great with you and your investment-- thanks for helping to make the project possible.

The Commongrounds Team

Thanks to the 120+ folks who have invested to help us surpass our minimum goal by April 2, the date our rewards were set to expire. We are excited and awed by the community of people pulling together to help make the project possible.

We’ve heard from a lot of folks that they would like to invest but they just learned about the opportunity or need more time to ask questions and plan.

We don’t want ANYONE to miss out on investing in Commongrounds and receiving the awesome rewards from our tenant-partners, so we are extending the rewards for our campaign until 4/16 (in honor of our new address 416. E. Eighth) to allow anyone who needs it, just a little more time to ask questions and do research.

One of those people with questions? Come and find us! We are hosting more info sessions, or you can schedule a meeting one-on-one meeting or call with Kate Redman at https://calendly.com/commongrounds/invest. We’ll also be hosting a Facebook live presentation the week of 4/7 where we’ll walk though investing and we’ll take questions about the project. Stay tuned to our facebook page for updates on events.

If you have questions about LocalStake, we're glad to help if we can, but also feel free to contact them directly: support@localstake.com. If you already invested and aren't sure if you have more steps: watch for another email from us with an update on whether you need to do more.

If none of these options work for you, no problem - just reach out to let us know how we can help. Thanks so much for your interest and support! We appreciate you.

Hey, there!

Thank you so much for your interest in investing Commongrounds. We are so grateful for, and blown away by the support community members have shown for the project and are so excited to keep moving toward groundbreaking in June 2019.

Today, I'm writing to ask you take action. We have 6 days left in our public crowdfunding campaign to reach our minimum investment goal. 71 people have pledged a commitment to invest in Commongrounds. Another 106 people, like you, have officially said you are "interested" on Localstake but not yet pledged commitment to a specific amount.

If every person who has expressed "interest" pledged $2000 today, we would exceed our minimum goal to raise money and meet almost half of our maximum goal. Even more amazing, if half of you pledged $10,000, we would meet our maximum goal.

Will you help us close the gap to meet our goal? Even if you are committing at the $500 level instead of the $2000 or $10,000 level, you still make a difference in dollars and in helping us reach our goal of 100 investors in the project.

If you are interested in investing but not yet comfortable, let us know what we can do to help.
a. Are you confused about the process?
b. Do you need more time?
c. Do you need more info about rewards?
d. Do you want more info about investment terms or the project overall?

Drop us a line and let us know how we can help. And please feel free to set up a one-on-one phone call or meeting with me (Kate), at https://calendly.com/commongrounds/invest.

A note on the Localstake process, in case you are confused about what it means to show "interest" or "commit": On Localstake, you can click that you are "interested" or you can click "commit to invest," and enter an amount. Localstake will only collect investment dollars when we reach pledged commitment for our minimum goal. So, until we reach pledges for our minimum goal, when you "commit" you are not immediately asked to put money in - instead, you are making a pledge that you will invest when we reach the minimum. This ensures you do not risk investing money unless we receive a minimum level of support from the community as a whole.

Thank you so much for your interest in the project. It is not an exaggeration to say that investment from supporters like you is what makes this project possible. Y'all rock.

With gratitude,

Kate

In an exciting update, the Commongrounds project received unanimous approval from the Traverse City Planning Commission for its site plan. Other than financing, the zoning approval was the most significant step yet to be completed in approvals for the project and keeps the project on its anticipated timeline to break ground by June 2019. To read more about the approval in local press, check out: https://www.traverseticker.com/news/three-eight...

One more week to invest in Commongrounds and claim rewards that expire April 2! Wondering if you want to invest? If you have questions, please message us or schedule a call or meeting with Kate Redman at https://calendly.com/commongrounds/invest/ .