Paradise Co-op Condominiums concept-
These will consist of thirty units, each with two levels and a deck or patio, with waterfront and docks. Still working out the details of the design, but am expecting that with the buildings, docks and landscaping we will be able to allow around 400 prims per unit. If we can get enough interest where the place is just about full, we should be able to do it all for a weekly association fee of about L$500 (monthly of about L$2,000, or about US $7.50/month). I am willing to handle the finances of the project and group completely. No charge to the group, in exchange for having the opportunity to be able to get it off the ground and make it work. As finances are one of my RL specialties as well as my job in SL, with doing both a business news show on Metaverse TV that will be staring in a couple of weeks as well as financial and business consulting in SL (although no worries about that, as I will be doing most of that out of an office so won’t be operating a business out of my unit).
There is an alternate location that just came to my attention that would allow for even more units, but I would need to move very quickly on this one, so unless there is a lot of interest very quickly that one will be out of the question.
I will set it up such that all excess funds above the monthly costs as well as excess funds from the startup of the group will go into a fund to help offset the costs of vacated units until they can be “re-sold” to a new user. That way we will have some time to find new members when someone leaves unexpectedly, and then all “sales funds” from finding the new members will also go into this fund. With the numbers I’m running here, it will involve L$6,000 (~$22.50 US) upfront cost to get into this as well as a serious commitment on the part of each member to be able to cover land use fees. The above costs are actually less than the necessity to get the land that I’m looking at, but it amounts to most of an island that is part of a private chain that has good commercial and residential land, however I want to have an excess in the fund to cover fees when someone leaves the group unexpectedly as well as this excess upfront cost showing a level of commitment to the project. This is also figuring that I will cover 1/30 of the costs myself, as I’m not doing this simply to get a free place to stay, and I will gladly share the financials with any member once the group is established.
If anyone is interested, due to the design it would also be very easy to create double sized units for double the cost (monthly and upfront) with double the prims and double the room inside.
In order to do this though I need a commitment from about 25 people (to minimize the risks I’m taking from a financial standpoint), as this would be a minimum to cover the costs involved (including my own contributions, that is).
My design idea will involve a 4 to 6 level low-prim building with each condo unit being the same design (or nearly so, although might break that up a little or modify them somewhat just to provide some options, although still working on the design) and each having a main floor along with a loft area that is about 1/3 to ½ half of the size of the main level. One side will be nearly all glass textured prims (hoping to set it up with scrips such that it can have several options such as a privacy mode and varying lights, etc.). Open to suggestions or may even leave it up to a vote as to the other wall textures (as I’m not partial to any particular look as far as the walls go). Also anyone who is extremely knowledgeable about building structures that wants to help with the actual building of the place, would be much appreciated. Would also need to know what peoples preferences are regarding accessing the upper levels of the condo unit… would it need to have a way to walk into the upper units (stairs/ramps) or would the preference be to have people on the upper units fly to them for the sake of saving on the buildings prim count and thus allowing more for landscaping and/or personal use.
If anyone is interested in participating in this co-op condo venture, get a hold of me in-world or via [email]ReddOconnell@gmail.com[/email].