After purchasing an aging retail strip center in Downtown Atlanta, a one-time co-living operator is embarking on a new strategy: redeveloping urban real estate and allowing area residents to co-own the project. The leaders of the company, called The Guild, say they have two goals: creating a project with permanently affordable housing units to help tamp down the neighborhood’s increasing housing costs and giving residents of the neighborhood a chance to participate in the rising property values around them with an investment starting at $10 per month. “Our mission is to facilitate self-determination,” said Antariksh Tandon, the director of development and design for The Guild. “Not making this out to be a utopian project, it's not to try to come up with a thing that is sort of foolproof, but to come up with a way to address the ills of commercial development." 
The Guild is following in the footsteps of a handful of other groups across the country trying to pool small increments of capital from local investors to buy commercial real estate. The overarching goal is to allow historically marginalized communities a chance to participate in wealth creation through real estate, while simultaneously stemming the tide…  Read the full story here. | 
