Rogers Management Group offering up joint commercial real estate in Oliver for as little as $1

Photo: File photo.

Oliver United Church at 511 Church Avenue is soon to be converted into an 8 unit apartment building by the Rogers Management Group and they are looking for investors.

The opportunity is knocking for residents of Oliver to own a piece of commercial real estate for as little as one dollar.

The United Church in Oliver has been purchased by The Rogers Management Group who are using the “Addy” platform to crowdfund ownership of the historic church.

The nearly 100-year-old church is being converted into an eight-unit apartment building and anyone interested has the chance to have part ownership in the building.

The Rogers Management Group is crowdfunding $600,000, for as many as 600,000 shares of ownership of the building.

Shares can be bought for as little as one dollar and up to $2,500. At the time of writing, there has been $214,000 worth of shares sold to 449 people, at an average of $480 per person.

Addy is a software platform that was founded in 2018 in an attempt to “remove the massive inefficiencies and exorbitant costs associated with managing real estate deals and raising capital,” Stephen Jagger, Co-Founder of Addy said.

He said that Addy is focused on commercial-grade real estate and has 31 properties on the platform, with the United Church in Oliver being the most recent.

Jagger added that traditionally an “average person is locked out of ownership. They don’t own real estate, and specifically, they don’t own commercial real estate.”

Most developers try to have as few investors as possible, for the most amount of money because this lowers all the additional costs such as operating costs, service charges, bank transactions and lawyer’s fees.

Jagger said that typically the developer would buy a property for say $30 million. They would get a $20 million mortgage and put up $2 million themselves. They would then approach investors asking for a minimum of $1 million investment each hoping to get eight of them to invest.

The Addy platform is trying to remove these massive inefficiencies and costs “to enable people to get on that property ladder, to be able to participate in the ownership of these types of buildings, where normally it is exclusively done for wealthy people.”

Jagger said now that the Oliver United Church is on this platform, instead of exclusively wealthy investors owning part of the building it can be the people of Oliver. Hundreds or even thousands of people can own a part of the building.

People who invest in the Oliver United Church will be locked into a six-year term, meaning everyday investors are not able to sell in six months.

Rental income, additional cash flow will be passed back to investors in the form of a distribution, meaning a dividend paid back to investors with the profit made off rents.

If the property is sold, any appreciation is paid back to investors.

Jagger said that one reason people like this platform is the community pride that comes along with ownership.

A membership for the platform costs $25 per year and gives you access to everything Addy has to offer.

The current plan for the Oliver property is once the property has been renovated and actively rented out to tenants, they will refinance in year six, and return investors their capital hopefully with a profit.

Jagger said this return will happen six times, once per year, giving out a distribution (dividend) to owners.

He adds that his hope is not only will the platform get people into the door of commercial real estate, but it also breaks down the barriers to understanding how these types of deals and management of these properties are conducted.

“So the future renters of this Oliver Church can potentially, if they choose to, own a piece of the building that they are potentially renting in. They can participate on both sides of the ownership. . . and when you get a dividend out of the building that you happen to also be the renter, that’s a percentage of your rent coming back to you,” Jagger said.

This is not the ownership group’s first time using the Addy platform, they raised capital through Addy for a building in Vernon in 2022. They sold over 1,000 shares of the property.

Jagger said for him that this is not simply about ownership, but there is a real tangible community element to locals owning part of the properties in their community.

He said he feels people are more likely to recommend a hotel in the area to friends and family if they have ownership in it. Or members will drive past three or four Starbucks to go to the one they have part ownership in.

The Rogers Management Group is converting the building to an 8-unit apartment building. They will be developing six units in Phase 1 and two more in Phase 2. Members can invest from $1 to $2,500. More information can be found at addyinvest.ca/properties/511-church