A neighborhood co-op at Glenwood & Clifton
A pool, a gym, and a big room at Glenwood and Clifton, owned and run by the East Atlanta families who use it. It takes 250 households to make it real. Ten are in already.
$100 a household. Refundable any time.
The building isn't ours. Nothing is under contract. We'll keep saying so until that changes.
Why now
Every pool near us has a waitlist. Several of us are on more than one.
Glenwood, Candler Park, Lake Claire, the Fourth. All full, all years deep, none of them in East Atlanta. And a few blocks from most of us is a church built in 1965 for a congregation that filled it. Repairs have outpaced the hands available to make them, and it's an awkward site to develop, so it has mostly stayed as it is.
So here's the thought, offered carefully. About four hundred households could take the building on together. Behind the sanctuary, fifteen feet down, a five lane pool with a sun shelf. Inside, a gym, locker rooms, and a big room that works for a wedding on Saturday and a laptop on Tuesday. The building keeps getting used. It just gets used by more of us.
This building isn't ours and it isn't on the market to us. Anything that happens here happens because a congregation decides it's the right next chapter for something they built and looked after for sixty years. That's their call. We'd want them at the opening.
Early rendering. A Friday in July, roughly.
The board so far
Squares claimed
Renderings are just pictures until enough of us stand behind them. Two hundred and fifty households is what turns this into a building we own together. Every square below is a real family. Tap or hover one to see who, unless they would rather stay quiet, which is fine too.
Updated as deposits land
East Atlanta goes first
These squares are open to families in the East Atlanta community area, at the best price we will ever offer. If you live here, this is your window.
More of us is cheaper for all of us
The building costs what it costs. The more families share it, the less each one pays. Bringing a neighbor in lowers your own price. That is not a sales line, it is just division.
Your name, your call
Put your family on your square or leave it blank. Named squares help convince the neighborhood this is real, but nobody is required to be a poster child.
What we build
The bones are good and the finishes are rough. Money goes to what you only do once. Furniture can catch up later.
Junior Olympic length, plus a shallow sun shelf for the small ones. It sits fifteen feet below the event deck, so a party can run up top while swimming carries on below. The pools people love most, Lakeside in Louisville, Colman in Seattle, are all hidden from the road.
It keeps its volume and gains a wall that opens onto a deck and lawn. Sectioned off, it's a wedding. Open, it's where you sit with a coffee and a laptop. Every dollar it earns in rentals comes off everyone's dues.
Racks, cardio and a class studio on the back side, open early with a fob. Locker rooms, concessions, covered bike parking, a properly striped lot. We're also pushing the city for crosswalks at May and Newton, which helps everyone walking to Burgess-Peterson whether they join or not.
Flexible member space with a couple of bookable meeting rooms and a printer, opening onto a deck above the bike racks. It's a perk, not a leased office. That distinction keeps us inside the permit and keeps the room available to you.
Images are early renderings. The gate signage shows a working name we've moved on from.
How a co-op works
You own a share
Your buy-in isn't a fee that disappears. It's a share in the property, held by your household, and it's yours to sell or transfer when you move or when it stops fitting your life.
Dues are just the running costs
Lifeguards, chemicals, power, insurance, repairs, and the people who keep it open, divided by the families who use it. No owner takes a cut, because there is no owner. Rentals and events reduce the number.
You see the books
The budget is set and trued up every year with a members' vote, the way a preschool or a co-op grocery does it. If dues go up you'll know why before it happens, because you'll be in the room.
The money
Closer to buying a share than paying a gym fee. You put in a one time amount, you own part of the place, and you can sell it when you leave.
Buy-in moves with how many of us there are
We advertise a range of $6,000 to $10,000 rather than a number we can't promise yet. If the final buy-in lands above that range, every deposit comes back automatically. That's a written condition, not a courtesy.
You don't pay it all at once
An initial amount, then contracted installments as construction moves. Third party lenders can finance a buy-in too.
It's yours to sell
Memberships are household based and transferable. Comparable neighborhood pools around Atlanta see resales in the $6,000 to $15,000 range. No promises on yours, but you're buying an asset, not renting a wristband.
What it pays for
Roughly $3.4 million all in: the building, the pool and its retaining structure, mechanical systems, site work. That's deliberately worst case and we expect it to come down. Anyone who deposits gets the model.
Other ways in
A pool only season membership and a membership without pool access, both cheaper. Tell us on the form which you'd want. That mix is how we set the tiers.
The deposit
Not a payment. A placeholder that lets us prove demand to a bank, a seller, and a room full of neighbors.
Where it goes
An attorney's escrow
Not our bank account. A neighborhood attorney holds it and we can't spend it.
You get it back if
Any of three things
The project doesn't go ahead. The buy-in exceeds the advertised range. Or you change your mind, in which case we refund it and reopen the square.
If we get there
It counts toward your buy-in
Credited in full, and you're in the round your address qualifies for, in the order you deposited.
You also get
The actual documents
Financial model, draft bylaws, site plan. If you're putting money down you should get to check our math.
Questions
If yours isn't here, ask us. We'll answer it and add it to the list.
This killed the last attempt here. Because the building predates 1965 and we're renovating rather than rebuilding, the existing parking baseline applies, so no new spaces are required. We'll redevelop and stripe the current lot, which is safer than what's there now. On top of that we're pursuing a shared parking deal with Burgess-Peterson, whose lot sits empty all summer, plus covered bike parking and a push for crosswalks at May and Newton.
Fair question, and we want the answer written down rather than promised. We're proposing hours, noise limits and event conditions as enforceable terms inside the Special Use Permit, so they survive any future change of management, including ours. Break them and the permit is at risk. Tell us what you'd want in there.
It does, and we won't pretend otherwise. What we can do: staged payments and outside financing so it isn't cash up front, cheaper pool only and no-pool tiers, and open swim lessons and neighborhood events beyond the membership. The YMCA next door provides subsidized access below certain income levels. We complement that, we don't replace it, and we'd rather partner than compete.
Every deposit comes back in full and we tell you why. It could fall apart several ways: the sale doesn't come together, the permit fails, the numbers stop working, or not enough families sign up. The escrow exists so that outcome costs you nothing but the disappointment.
Members do. Founding members seat the first board, elected boards after that, and full member votes with notice for anything major, including any sale. Bylaws are being drafted and we'll publish them before deposits become commitments.
Right now, yes. This first round is open to families in the East Atlanta community area, and we're doing it that way on purpose. A neighborhood place should be built by the neighborhood before anyone else gets a say in it. If you live outside the area and want in, put your address in anyway and we'll come back to you when the next round opens.
Kids obviously yes, and membership covers your household with no per child charges. Guests yes, through a pass system with sensible limits. Dogs, service animals only, which we know will disappoint some of you.
It's a placeholder. We've ruled out a few words on purpose. This is a place the neighborhood owns together, and some of the obvious options carry a history around here that we want no part of. Beyond that we're stuck, so there's a box on the form below. Tell us what to call it.
Take a square
Open to East Atlanta families first. One per household, two minutes, refundable at any point for any reason, including no reason.
Rather talk to a person
Find us at the Strut with a table and the site plan. We'll come to your porch if you get four neighbors together.
Saved
Your square is spoken for.
We've recorded your household. The $100 deposit is the next step, and we'll email you the link the moment deposits open.
The terms don't change between now and then: the money goes to an attorney held escrow account, it counts toward your buy-in in full, and it comes back to you on request, at any point, for any reason, including no reason.