Power Station HQ

WE DID AMAZINGLY ON THIS - RAISING £120,000 IN JUST OVER 2 WEEKS - BUT THE SELLER DECIDED TO SELL IT TO SOMEONE ELSE - SO WE ARE CLOSING THIS DOWN AND REFUNDING EVERYONE.

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Are you tired of standing by while spaces for community and creativity disappear leaving people with nowhere to meet, work and build the projects that make resilient societies? If so, join the club/co-op!

If you want to play a role in turning it around, then please join our movement - and back this project by owning a share in a community owned building! We are a fast-growing and dynamic culture-led grassroots organisation whose mission is to intervene in some of the biggest issues we're now facing collectively. We work closely with our community in East London - from our street outwards!

We are working to turn one street in North East London into a beacon and template for community and culture-powered action on combined economic/energy/climate crises. We are now raising money to buy a building at the centre of this place as community owned hub of action.

We want to ensure it remains and grows as a jewel at the heart of the community and a place from which this long term project of building a renewable, people powered POWER STATION beams out locally and nationally. 

We at The Powerful Community Benefit Society are launching this community share offer in order to secure a former dairy/garage/ artist studios and turn it into the HQ of the growing POWER STATION movement.

The plan is for it to become a real asset of community value owned by and for the community and a space where art and imagination lead action on the intertwined crises of our time. 

Being part of a community share offer means investing to enable the urgent purchase of this building to happen. 

WHAT YOU GET

• Shareholders are then voting members of the Co-op Society and get 4% interest on their investment. Video tour of the space below!
• All shareholders will also get works of art we have made called Greenbacks - up to the value of their shares. (This is depending on us being successful - otherwise you get your money back.) Our work is collected in MoMA, The V&A, The British Museum and we have recently had a major exhibition at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge exhibiting alongside Stik, Banksy and other amazing artists.

• Community shares are withdrawable shares in The Powerful Community Benefit Society (a co-op) who will own the building freehold and rent the space out to Optimistic Foundation CIC (who will also sublet some spaces to other artists). 
• The rents will be used to pay some interest to investors and cover costs and build a surplus to help develop energy-related projects. 

All details on the community share offer are in the attached PDF right at the bottom of this page. 

And click below for a live business plan recording

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

As you'll see if you download the share offer or watch the video above - Hilary and I usually run a community interest company called Optimistic Foundation CIC Ltd. That company is a not for profit, operating with a remit of intervening in the dominant philosophical, social and environmental questions of the day - with a desire to promote economic, social and environmental equality. We do this through a mixture of cultural action - mainly through film and art. Right now - for this share offer, we are also working through a community benefit society we opened to build our new project Power Station. But before we talk more about the community benefit society, let's give you a little more on our background and core work. Below is a short documentary intro about our Power Station project: 

OPTIMISTIC FOUNDATION COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY: 

• Is built from long term engagement with the contested sites of East London. 
• Believes in the power of artists to help shape the dominant stories of our times.
• Empowers action through education and creativity and makes the space for this to thrive. 
• Deploys a variety of cultural practices to argue for and create a more socially, economically and environmentally just world around us. 
• Makes big issues accessible to wide audiences.
• Makes transformative action contagious in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty.

The CIC is led by artist and filmmaker Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn. 

Our core, multifaceted project is building a POWER STATION and involves a diverse team, some of us building community engagement, others creating art and film. We are also building long-term local and national partnerships and collaborations– from solar to food-growing co-ops, community organisers, artists and economists – all imagining, growing and building thriving communities and with a vision of a fairer world.

BANK JOB 

We set up as a community interest company in 2018 as we worked to pull off a community heist in our ‘Bank Job’ project. 

• This film explores and educates viewers about debt and economics. It's both anarchic and accessible - in the film we set up a rebel bank, printing our own money and exchanging it for sterling to support four local grassroots projects. Selling these banknotes also enabled us to buy up and literally explode £1.2M of predatory debt. 
• To make it, we occupied a former high street bank for a year and a half, building it as a site of community empowerment, education and action led by art. 
• The Bank employed and trained local people, had thousands of visitors, made the press multiple times and the Bank Job feature documentary film continues to travel and screen as a tool for community organising with Debt Justice and distributed by Cinema Politica and Dartmouth Films. www.bankjob.pictures

“The rebel bank is indeed much more than a building. It’s an intervention in social imagining that is just the beginning of greater, positive things to come.”

The video below is a background to our work

POWER STATION

POWER STATION was built out of our return in early 2020 to a small terrace house to complete the film edit (Premiered at Hot Docs, nominated for Grierson and BIFA Awards) and write the book of the Bank Job project that having the ‘rebel bank’ made possible.  

Subsequent rapid lockdown and development of mutual aid networks here prompted us to ask what could we do to tackle the combined climate/energy/economic crises from our home place?  

We looked to all we’d learnt from the Bank Job and thinkers such as Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics), Ann Pettifor (Case for the Green New Deal) and Ashley Dawson (People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons) and the phrase ‘every building a power station’ prompted us to act. 

Could we turn one street into a POWER STATION – a template and challenge of solar and retrofit measures on the hotchpotch that is this London street?

Since that moment we have been building a POWER STATION as a ‘show and do’ project operating from our home as meeting space, site of activism, art and making, sleeping on the rooftop and moving out into very short-term local public spaces to spread the word. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/18/power-to-the-people-the-neighbours-turning-their-london-street-into-a-solar-power-station

We employ local people, we work with an ecosystem of other local organisations, we film everything as we go and share toolkits for action in a growing POWER membership site, so others can share in and learn from the process. 

We create spectacles of sustenance that help build the resilient streets and communities we need. www.power.film

WHY WE ARE LAUNCHING THIS COMMUNITY SHARE OFFER

As the POWER STATION grows the need for space grows – to meet, to plan, to make and to organise together as a community.

 We know from our recent expansion of the POWER STATION working with the local council and Repowering London that multiple community spaces are ‘set for redevelopment’ and all the organisations we work with from refugee story club ‘Stories and Supper’ to foodbanks are homeless or precarious. 

Space shouldn’t be a luxury – it is a necessity for the work of change, particularly when that work involves artistic production and an invitation into education and debate through thinking through making.  

The video below is from a live business planning meeting, shared with potential investors just before we launched

Read daily dispatches from the future of the space here  

A SPACE FOR ACTION

At the moment we have wheelbarrows of compost, printing machines and a team of 6 coming in and out of our terrace house on the street where this is all based. 

A chance has come up for this site on this street that would not only be production base but vital community space of action and organising reaching out from the local and becoming a hub of knowledge exchange -  hosting residencies and workshops. 

A former dairy and garage turned art studios is on the market this month with a valuation price of £520,000.  95a Lynmouth Road would become the POWER STATION HQ-  housing demonstration of solar panels and retrofit, action workshops, organising space (growing community meals), art production space and knowledge bank.

TIME AND MONEY

The owner of this building is seeking a quick cash sale and we have to move fast.

If the owner accepts an offer at this price of £520,000 there are then the costs of conveyance (£2000+vat), stamp duty land tax (approx. £17,000) land registry fee (£295), third party search fees (£700) alongside the costs of running a share offer from professional fees to platform fees. 

We are looking to raise £600,000. 

Raising £750,000 would mean we could ensure an immediate reserve for building works and maintenance -  adding solar panels and retrofit measures. It would also kick start the planned community fund that the Powerful Community Benefit Society will run putting small pots of finance into advancing further greening and retrofit measures on the street. 

If we don’t raise the full amount it will be hard to convince the owner to sell to us as money talks in this situation and speed matters. 

In order to enable the withdrawal of shares, Optimistic Foundation CIC will seek to raise the funds to buy the property from the CBS. We are targeting a 5-year window for this. 

Below is a video which shows you the projected ROI on an investment of £1000 over time. Just pause it and enlarge to view it clearly.

A COMMUNITY ASSET

Buying the building in this way means it really is an asset of community value owned by and for the community not only locally but nationally as the POWER STATION grows and reaches out. 

It solves a real problem of space for a growing community project dedicated to this street and how we can make this a beacon and meeting point for further street-by-street action locally and across the country. 

The Share Issue also builds on the building's history of providing artist studio space and brings a vision of community empowerment and resilience to the street. 

From our very first mailout people have expressed their love for and need for spaces like this to persist and resist. 

“Yes I ‘m in. My great-grandparents grew up on your street and I grew up in Walthamstow so I feel I already have a connection and have great admiration for the work you do.”

“This space is a ‘jewel’ in our street and we should try and maintain it any way we can.”

“I don’t live in London anymore but think that keeping artists spaces in the community is vital”

“Quite frankly I ‘m up for anything that keeps spaces for the community rather than developers”

“You and your street are an inspiration. The property would be a wonderful community hub.”

In the POWER STATION project we argue that big changes can happen fast and we look to history for this  - from the building of the National Grid to the Welfare State. We talk to people on the street that remember the coming of electricity and explore this heritage in relation to the energy transition needed now. 

This site is part of the fabric of this street and needs protecting and nurturing as a space that can host and trigger new possibilities for these endless rows of Victorian terraces. Artists are often consigned to or choose sites on the edges in industrial estates, but, informed by our time in a high street bank, we believe that by being really embedded in a place and community we can have more sustained impact sand build new social and imagination infrastructures.

The place isn’t big but it is enough to hold this, to enable it to blossom and grow without diverting from the core mission of the POWER STATION through the need to house multiple revenue-making activities.

FAQ'S

I’d love to invest but would love to talk to you – is this possible? 

Yes - please read the FAQ's and watch the videos first - and obviously only book in a 15 min call if you are really serious, as we are off our feet. If you do want to do this, then click here - you will be taken to a booking calendar which will then trigger off a link to my (Dan here) zoom account. 

Will this be of genuine benefit to the community?

YES.

All our work is directly connected to intervening in the economic, political and cultural system. 

We work with communities in deep collaboration and solidarity, and this space will become a beacon or example to other communities of what an inclusive and engaged cultural HQ can achieve. 

With everything from live, in person workshops, to the production of large-scale art and film production, to affordable space for local artists to work and exhibit in, the Power HQ will become a major cultural hub – located on one suburban street, but reaching out nationally. 

(Hilary is writing a daily journal from life in 2024 – reporting from our first year in the place and all that is growing)

How tried and tested are these types of investment models? Will we really get our money back plus some interest?

Community Shares are an established form of raising capital. You can find examples of then working well across the country. Look up Plymouth’s Nudge as an example. It is patient capital so money is not intended to be withdrawn fast but it is withdrawable and it does yield interest (see share offer document).

This method may be outside of most people's knowledge and comfort zone. We are bought up in a system where we're so used to entrusting our cash to banks, they seem the most responsible people to put money into.. and yet, is this really the case? We would argue the opposite. Isn't it actually much better to put your money to use for a cause you directly believe in? Most high street banks remain deeply invested in fossil fuels.

We’re working with Dave Boyle from Community Shares – he’s probably the foremost expert on this type of funding in the UK

https://communityshares.co.uk/about-us-dave-boyle/

How is this building valued at £520,000! Isn’t it part shed/garage?

An official valuation was commissioned by the previous occupant. Now the place is on the market for £525,000. It may seem a lot but as it is part residential and part commercial it is in line with prices of similar sites in London.  Yes we could probably buy a massive farm and land in another place but this is the place we are committed to working with and in -  with all its issues. 

Why are you saying the CIC (community interest company) will buy it back when the point of a share offer is community ownership?

A CIC owning the building is still a community asset as a community interest company is “asset locked”. This means that the profit in a CIC never goes to the directors – but must benefit the community. 

The reason we are planning to buy the building from the Community Benefit Society at the same price is so that shareholders get their money back. We’re simply aiming to do this to give investors a clear exit strategy.

Won’t this defeat the point of it being community owned?

No. The building will retain its ethos, serving various different communities from street and local residents and organisations to others around the UK who share our vision for a fairer and greener Britain, and who come to visit, share skills and inspiration. 

Whether the building is owned by the Community Benefit Society, or is successfully bought by the Community Interest Company, it will remain a community asset with the same activities and will be run in the same way. 

How will Optimistic Foundation CIC Ltd be able to buy the building from the Powerful community benefit society?

The CIC and its sister company Optimistic Productions Ltd have this year turned over a combined £380,000, and we have plans to keep this growing.  We believe that within 5 years we would easily be able to buy the building - but do remember all investments are a risk - and don't put your money in if you need it back very quickly - as this is a "patient capital" model. Our full investment documents are at the bottom of the page - download them and go through them carefully.  You can also speak with our accountants (we have some of the very best accountants working with us - Third Sector Accountancy Coop Ltd).

How long will it take to get my money back?

We are targeting 5 years – it’s possible it could be sooner – and it’s possible it could be longer.  

What if the CIC fails to buy the building? How do I get my money back?

In the worst-case scenario, the building can be sold to a third party, at which point shareholders will be made whole (as long as the sale price exceeds the purchase price. All investments carry risk.

This form of investment is patient capital.

What do I get for investing apart from shares?

For all investments, we are going to give a totally unique hand-printed share certificate by artist Hilary Powell. We will also include Greenback artworks to come out to all share investors over £300 - as long as we are successful.

What happens if we don't raise the amount - and the owner sells the building to someone else?

In that case, everyone gets their investment back. It's being held for us by crowdfunder.co.uk - they act as the guarantor at this time.

Why have you started the investment at £300? Won’t there be a lot of people who can’t afford to invest who would want to support and be part of this?

We’ve always tried to make all our work open to all income levels selling artworks from £1 to £1000. In the case of the immediate need to raise a lot of money fast and the fact that this money is in the form of ‘recuperable shares’ and not donations we set the minimum investment level at £300 after an initial question to our community brought back a response that many could invest at this level. This is not unusual in the community share offer world. 

 Why are you crowdfunding again? Isn’t this all a bit much after you raised so much for the school and street in December?

We believe there’s no limit to the work that needs doing at this time. We launched successful crowdfunders to fund a street solar and a school’s solar. These were donation /reward based. This is a different form of investment and is a next step for our work embedded in this place. 

Isn’t it just a chance to try and secure a crowdfunded mortgage at slightly less than market rates? 

Not really. The issue we’re really dealing with is timing. 

We think that the cic Optimistic Foundation will in due course have the track record to be able to take out a mortgage but right now, that’s probably not the case, and certainly won’t be in the urgent timescale we’re up against. 

So, we want to use the power of a community to help secure the building for use with social purpose, and in time we hope to be able to raise the funds to buy it. 

Whilst the Community Benefit Society owns the building, we’re aiming to give investors 4% interest which is a balance between being above the bank rate for savers so your money is working harder for you, but also means we don’t have to charge more in rents than would be affordable for people who are working hard as artist changemakers and other community groups. 

 Will you make the building accessible and energy efficient?  

We will make the building as accessible and energy efficient as possible and as quick as we can.  We have not got architectural plans and quotes at this stage but will work on these and raising funds from foundations with this remit to do this in a way that forwards our aims to share retrofit models and build training opportunities in this field. 

 How will you use the building?

Current plans are to have one level (a small room and access to toilet and bath) occupied by Optimistic Foundation cic’s POWER STATION production offices and the top level – a basic loft room – available for visiting artists and economists coming to run workshops and do residencies in the space. 

 This is the ideal model but once we secure the building we will work in more detail on these plans and the possibility to be able to rent this out between residencies to provide another income stream. Keeping the production offices upstairs means the downstairs space is open to a range of community uses and not taken over by production offices. 

 What will you do with the residential flat upstairs?

We think it would be best as a place for residencies, and perhaps we could also rent it for short-term incomes. As it is small and does not come with a kitchen it is not, in its current state a long-term habitable separated flat. 

I'm new to your work - I might invest, but before I do that, I want to find out more - what's the best place to do that?

You can watch our award winning feature documentary Bank Job for free - and take a deep dive into our Power Station membership site - (totally for free) by clicking here https://membership.power.film/join-free