Common Owner staff, from left, Mitch Skomra, director of technology; Jacob Walsh, director of finance; Michael Puma, director of business development; Richard Rogers, director of compliance; and Maggie Hamilton-Winship, president, holding her son Cullen at 225 Louisiana St.
Four years ago, a group of five entrepreneurs with backgrounds in real estate, law, technology and operations launched a crowdfunding company in Buffalo to help real estate developers tap regular people to finance their projects.
The goal of their new company, Common Owner, was to level the playing field for the average investor while diversifying the pool of funding for projects and bringing more capital overall into the system. While the business isn’t geographically limited, they hoped to make an impact in Western New York, where four of the five live.
Investors can participate by taking equity stakes in projects, loaning money or both.
“We were hopeful that this tool would be a major transformation in how people look at capitalizing their projects,” said partner Derek King. “We thought about this as a tool for projects in our backyard.”
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Fast forward to 2024, and the firm has participated in 10 projects from coast to coast, raising $1.5 million with additional investor interest.
But only two are in Buffalo – the $7 million Monroe Building renovation of the former Record Theatre complex, undertaken by some of the Common Owner principals, and a smaller Loads of Love development on the East Side, anchored by an eco-friendly laundromat. The rest are in California, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, as well as other parts of New York.
“It would have been great to have more projects here in our backyard, but it definitely was exciting to have these other projects from across the country,” King said.
But it’s a difficult business with all the regulations and technology. So now, the team has decided to join forces with another nationwide crowdfunding platform that also specializes in real estate: SmallChange.co. Only slightly older than Common Owner, Small Change has helped 47 developers raise over $13 million for projects in 26 cities, with a focus on social impact.
As of last month, King and his colleagues – attorney and urban planner Richard Rogers, software engineer Mitchell Skomra, operations manager Jacob Walsh, and Julian Anjorin of North Carolina, an entrepreneur with a background in cybersecurity – became partners of the Pittsburgh-based firm, which was founded by CEO Eve Picker. They are no longer taking projects through Common Owner and will shut that site down once the last project is finished.
“Eve and Small Change are a leader in investment crowdfunding for real estate. We’ve been in the same space and really admire the work that she does,” King said. “It was an interesting opportunity to double up our pipeline and our various projects. It’s a win-win for both parties.”
WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH…
Hunt Real Estate
Hunt Real Estate Corp. is rising in the national rankings of real estate brokerage firms.
Buffalo-based Hunt, which operates through its ERA franchise and is the largest locally-based agency, came in 31st for number of transactions and 60th in dollar volume nationwide, according to the newest data from RISMedia’s Power Broker Report. Those are increases from 34th and 66th, respectively, in 2022.
Ralph Wilson Park
The Buffalo Urban Development Corp. got a nice little present last week, when the Great Lakes Commission doubled its grant funding for the first phase of construction of the shoreline elements at Ralph Wilson Jr. Park.
BUDC had previously received $874,783 from the GLC in July 2022, and had anticipated eventually getting another $2 million to pay for the work. But the agency hadn’t expected some of it so soon.
GLC notified BUDC in late February that it was providing another $819,933 that had become available because two other GLC-funded projects hadn’t spent as much as expected. Of that, $19,933 will be used to complete excavation work along the shoreline, while the rest will cover “stone, rip rap and armoring construction,” according to a BUDC memo to the agency’s board.
Loans, loans, loans
Three businesses in Chautauqua County will receive a total of $725,000 in low-interest loans to support upgrades and job growth, after the county Industrial Development Agency approved allocations this week.
The CCIDA backed the loans at 4% interest to businesses in Jamestown, Gerry and Silver Creek, using its AL Tech, EDA Cares Act and Chautauqua Revolving Loan funds. Recipients include:
The offices of Excelco-Newbrook in Silver Creek.
- $400,000 to Tim and Edmond Shults, owners of Shults Real Estate and Tim & Edmond LLC, who purchased the 60,000-square-foot former Quality Markets building at 245 and 255 Fluvanna Ave. in Jamestown in 2016. After obtaining a use variance for light manufacturing, they plan to spend $1 million to upgrade the facility to handle additional manufacturing.
- $225,000 in two loans to LINC Products and Services, a Native American owned business that supplies machine tools, manufacturing equipment, raw materials and subcontracting services for manufacturing and construction. LINC is buying Universal Tool Co. on Route 60 in Gerry, a CNC machining business focused on injection mold tooling, tool-and-die, and contract manufacturing. LINC plans to retain UTC’s three employees, hire two more within 30 days and add 20 more jobs over five years.
- $100,000 to Excelco/Newbrook Inc. at 16 Mechanic St. in Silver Creek, to pay for increased inventory, materials and supplies for increased production, and as contract financing for two big orders. ENI, which employs 44 and plans to add six others, specializes in making complex mechanical equipment, prototype components and small-volume production of specialized equipment for naval, undersea and nuclear uses.
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