News & Updates
Vancouver Island Joins the SPRE Table with Victoria and Nanaimo - New SPRE members!
Affordablity is not just a Vancouver issue. That has been the case for some time--with challenges for community space, non profits and social enterprises creeping upwards through the Sea to Sky and Sunshine Coast regions, outwards through Metro Vancouver, and now over to Vancouver Island. Joining the Table this Fall are the cities of Victoria and Nanaimo--champions for thinking about these issues in the Island context. SPRE is thrilled to have their perspective and energy added to the already dynamic group of leaders at the SPRE Table seeking to mitigate the impacts of the real estate market on non profits and social enterprises.
Welcoming the Community Land Trust to the SPRE Collaborative
SPRE is delighted to welcome another new member to the Collaborative Table, bringing total Collabortive members to 18! Like BC Housing and CMHC, the Community Land Trust has a housing focus, but seeks to nest that within a larger spectrum of affordable, suitable space for community. SPRE is not a 'housing - primary' Collaborative, but with our shared learning action approach, are able to break down silos and look at social purpose real estate from a complex, holistic and inclusive perspective. SPRE members work together to make a difference for non profits and social enterprises, and ultimately for the communities they serve. Welcome CLT and all of the recent new members to SPRE!!
NEW SPRE Collaborative Members -- Metro Vancouver & City of Surrey
The SPRE Collaborative is delighted to welcome Metro Vancouver and the City of Surrey Planning & Development & Parks, Recreation, Culture to the Table. SPRE now numbers 16 organziational members and over 30 individual representatives from our estemed groups of funders and investors. Check them out on our "About" page!
Social Purpose Real Estate (and SPRE) featured in REIBC's quarterly journal INPUT
JUST RELEASED Building Community with Partnershipsin the Real Estate Institute of BC's INPUT Quarterly Publication on Land & Real Estate Issues in BC, Summer 2019, Vol 47, Number 2. With articles by Social Purpose Real Estate Collaborative (SPRE) member & Central City Foundation's Jennifer Johnstone, SPRE's Project Director Jacquie Gijssen, Catalyst Community Development Society's Robert Brown, Stephanie Allen of BC Housing and others. A comprehensive look at the social purpose real estate sector in BC.
Bank of England's Chief Economist Highlights Importance of Voluntary Sector
Andy Haldane: ‘We have allowed the voluntary sector to wither,’ The Guardian, 2019. With the premise that the Voluntary (Social Purpose) Sector is going to lead society through the fourth industrial revolution, it's time to invest in real estate to ensure they can deliver.
Announcing SPRE Intern / Researcher Liana Glass
Liana comes to SPRE from the School of Community & Regional Planning at UBC where she is a 2nd year student. We are delighted to have her interest and enthusiasm for social purpose real estate assisting SPRE for the next 8-9 months. Liana can be reached at SPRE.research@gmail.com
JUST PUBLISHED: Shared Space & the New Non Profit Workplace
SPRE is thrilled to share the news of this new publication, which we think will transform access to information on non profit centres and shared spaces in North America. By SPRE friends and partners in the 2015 Building Opportunities Conference, China Brotsky and Sarah Eisinger, with Diane Vinokur-Kaplan, Shared Space & the New Non Profit Workplace tells it all. Shared Space is "... a practical roadmap to develop these new workspaces; documents benefits to nonprofit staff, organizations, and their communities; and presents challenges and solutions at successful nonprofit shared spaces, the history of nonprofit centers, and future trends. Further, it offers nonprofits an opportunity to engage in forward-thinking practices, such as collaborative service delivery, green building operations, and cross-sector alliances. The comprehensive resource will be useful to nonprofit executives, staff and board members, foundations, philanthropists, real estate and urban planning professionals interested in creating these projects, and researchers and students of the nonprofit sector."
Industrial Concierge Services - Vancouver Economic Commission
A new program by VEC, businesses and organizations can sign up for Industrial Concierge Services to connect to opportunities for industrial space-sharing in Vancouver.
CIRES Community Impact Real Estate Society joins the SPRE Table
The SPRE Table is excited to announce yet another new member -- CIRES Community Impact Real Estate Society! Using BC Housing properites on long term lease, the non-profit society CIRES manages 52 commercial units in 24 building in Vancouver's inner city. Totallying 100,000+ sf, most of the buildings are mixed use with commercial retail at grade and social housing above. Approximately 60% of the commercial units are leased at below market rates to social enterprises and non-profit organiziations with value added back annually via profits from the commercial leases. This is social purpose real estate at scale!
SPRE joins 2019 Land Summit as Allied Partner, May 9-10, Vancouver BC
Social purpose real estate takes the stage at the 2019 Land Summit with two deep dive sessions and amobile tour. This is the place for land use conversations! Held once every five years, the Land Summit brings together planners, real estate professionals, architects, land surveyors, appraisers, landscape architects, engineers, developers--the full spectrum. Registration ends May 3rd. Preliminary program & registration at: https://buff.ly/2GfmAkt