February 23, 2010 12:00 PM - 12 attended

Dwight Way Potential Community FREE Site Visit NEW TIMES (Berkeley)

This location is shown only to members

Tour 1545 Dwight Way (near Sacramento St.) in Berkeley, a huge, historic, and funky house for sale - formerly the commune known as The Ark. 17 bedrooms! Now showing 12-2 today.

Local buyer's agent/EBCOHO supporting member Mickey Tenenbaum will be on hand - to avoid a bidding war with the owner (as happened with Berkeley Cohousing 16 years ago), we encourage you to identify yourself as part of EBCOHO so they don't think that lots of separate groups are interested. If you can't make it today, please RSVP "No" and then on the next page you'll be able to suggest some other times you might be able to view it.

If there is interest, we will organize a special get-together for folks who would like our help in putting together abid as a group. Thanks to EBCOHO supporting member and longtime community organizer Lotus Allen, we've talked with two different socially conscious housing advocates who may be able to help financially, for the right kind of group.
A vacant 17-bedroom, three-story, over-6,000 square foot historic Victorian mansion near downtown Berkeley is on the market, listed at just over a million bucks:

listing for Dwight Way Mansion

Betsy got to walk through on Sunday, and it turns out that an EBCOHO member actually owned and worked on the site a decade ago, so we may have some "inside information" as to what's in the walls.

It's currently configured as a rooming house with 24 beds; the extensive grounds (9,000 square foot lot) include a sauna and hot tub. It's zoned for three units, and has just one kitchen currently, so it might work better as an extended community/group home than traditional separate-independent-units cohousing. It is actively on the market, so it may go fast - a group may have to take quick action to get an offer together, and it's unlikely that an extended-time purchase option would be available; seller financing (up to 80% of purchase price for several years at 4.75% interest, if I'm reading the listing correctly) is available, so a buying group might have to come up with just $200,000 down, at the current listing price.

If you can't make this afternoon's tour, no problem, do RSVP "No" by clicking on the link below and indicate your interest so we know to follow up with you.

  • Raines Cohen
    Raines Cohen

    We had some fresh interest (including from a couple longtime "lurker" EBCOHO members), but the time shift to a very wet early afternoon made it challenging. We're doing another showing this Friday evening: http://www.ebcoho.org/calendar/12693311/

    Posted February 24, 2010 at 7:07 AM
  • Jen Siegel
    Jen Siegel

    My family is very interested in this house - currently consulting design and building professionals regarding the feasibility of dividing the house into 3 or 4 separate units with some shared community space... if anyone else is interested in joining us in this process or learning more about our ideas, we would love to talk to you!! I understand there may be an EBCOHO meeting to talk about the house, but you can also email me at jensiegel@earthlink.net or call me at 510-336-1692. :-) Jen Siegel

    Posted February 26, 2010 at 10:18 AM
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12 attended
  • Event Host
    Raines Cohen
    Cohousing Coach and Aging In Community Author, Co-Organizer
    +5 guests
  • Event Host
    Mickey Tenenbaum
    Cohousing-friendly buyers' agent &supporting member til 7/3/2010
  • Jen Siegel
    Supporting EBCOHO Member through 2/26/2011
    +1 guest
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