Nation’s First-Ever Crowdfunded Real Estate Project Opens in Washington, D.C.
The country’s first ever crowdfunded real estate project has opened this month in Washington, D.C. Called Maketto, it is a 6,000-square-foot communal food and retail market, located at 1351 H Street NE, in the city’s H Street Corridor.
By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor
The country’s first-ever crowdfunded real estate project opened this month in Washington, D.C. Called Maketto, it is a 6,000-square-foot communal food and retail market located at 1351 H St., N.E., in the city’s H Street Corridor.
Maketto is the brainchild of Toki Underground owner and renowned chef Erik Bruner-Yang and Will Sharp, founder of the DURKL fashion line. It features a new, 60-seat restaurant from Bruner-Yang, a gourmet coffee shop, a bakery, outdoor vendor stalls and a DURKL retail store.
Work on the project started in 2012, when Fundrise, a D.C.-based real estate crowdfunding and investment platform, raised the funds needed to improve the building. In just three months, the company raised $325,000 from 175 individual investors, which made investments of between $100 and $10,000.
“More than three years ago, we envisioned a new kind of real estate, based on access, transparency and technology. Today, with the opening of Maketto, our earliest project has come to fruition,” Ben Miller, co-founder & CEO of Fundrise (and a CPE 2015 Star to Watch), said in a news release.
Fundrise was launched in 2012. Since then, it has given more than 50,000 individuals an opportunity to invest in real estate in top markets around the country. Maketto was its first project. According to Fundrise, the property’s value has appreciated by an average of 20 percent annually over the past three years.
Photo credit: maketto1351.com
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