Community-Owned
Real Estate

Reclaiming Our Communities'
Futures in Metro Denver

The real estate market has left our communities behind—community-owned real estate allows us to create a place in Metro Denver for each other. We believe that Black, Latino, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrant and LGBTQ communities not only belong in Metro Denver but are a crucial part of our social fabric—many vibrant threads of culture and experience make Denver rich, diverse, and dynamic. This program supports all communities’ abilities to live, work, do business, and remain in place, preserving the cultural essence that creates belonging and the conditions for collective power and prosperity.

The Challenge: Preserving Cultural Neighborhoods

17,000 Latino Households Lost Between 2000-2016

We are witnessing the displacement of residents and entrepreneurs from culturally rich neighborhoods through gentrification. This displacement has a devastating domino effect:
  • Systemic gentrification forces long-standing businesses and residents out as landlords sell properties to developers at unaffordable rates
  • Developers prioritize profit over community, actively dismantling established neighborhood economic and social structures
  • Historically BIPOC neighborhoods face accelerating displacement, eroding decades of community investment and cultural heritage
  • Rising property values have increased the tax burden
  • The economic pressures of gentrification systematically remove community members from their generational homes and business locations

Our Solution: Community Control Through Real Estate Ownerships

CCW's Community-Owned Real Estate project seeks to reverse these market-driven trends by changing the way property, particularly commercial property in legacy cultural neighborhoods, is controlled and owned.

Real estate ownership provides agency and stability, and can unleash creativity and growth as owners no longer have to worry about displacement as their property values rise. When real estate is collectively owned, whether by business owners, community residents, mission-aligned investors, or a mix of all three, the owners have the additional advantage of growing the wealth of the community.

How to Get Involved?

Knowledge Building & Popular Education

Center for Community Wealth’s Community Owned Real Estate (CORE) Academy offers both in person and online learning opportunities for small businesses, nonprofit organizations and emerging groups to learn their options and to build a shared understanding for greater group alignment.

Check out our online courses on Thinkific and stay tuned for in-person learning opportunities.
Our intro course is generously sponsored by the Cooperative Education Fund from the Cooperative Development Foundation.

    Technical Assistance

    The pathway to securing real estate can feel confusing and complex. CCW’s technical assistance program supports small businesses, nonprofit organizations and emerging groups based in Metro Denver on their path to community owned or stewarded property.
    • Group visioning and design
    • Readiness coaching
    • Feasibility analysis
    • Pro forma development
    • Connection to service providers and lenders
    • Place-based landscape scan and opportunity mapping
    Want to see if technical assistance is right for you? Schedule a 1:1 conversation with our team to share about your project.

    Long Term Stewardship & Investment

    CCW is currently developing financial vehicles to support strategic real estate acquisition for long term stewardship and community control.

    We are currently seeking to connect with investors both large and small who share our vision for a community owned and stewarded real estate that can close the racial wealth gap in Metro Denver. Want to connect? Contact us to learn more about long-term stewardship and investment.
    For Business OWners

    Get support to grow your business or explore employee ownership.

    Learn More
    For Anchor Institutions

    Partner with us to align your spending with community wealth building.

    Learn More
    For Community Members

    Invest in transformative economic change.

    Learn More
    For Supporters

    Invest in transformative economic change

    Donate Now

    Building Infrastructure for
    Community Ownership & Stewardship

    CCW has formed local and national partnerships to sustain this work. We are proud to be members of the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network and the Community Ownership & Stewardship Impact Table. Please check out our collaborative website Community Field Notes for the latest updates about the emerging field of community ownership and stewardship.

    More locally, we work with Neighborhood Development Collaborative to convene a Community of Practice of Metro-Denver organizations focused on community ownership and stewardship. partners with organizations like the Neighborhood Development Collaborative to create lasting solutions for community-controlled real estate in the Denver region.

    Together, we're building the financial and organizational infrastructure needed for successful community ownership projects.