Our Fortunate Mission

fortunity is primarily an evolving vision and working model of an ‘urban intentional community’ -- a core group of interdependent individuals and businesses that live and/or work locally together in various ways. It is the communication and relationships between the people, businesses, and the structures in which they are housed which forms the essence of the vision. Finding out how people either independently or collectively solve the inherent problems associated with modern urban American living is the challenge. Honest communication, productivity, creativity, and fair trade are the primary tools being used to achieve this goal, while personal integrity remains the foundation from which mutual trust can be built and financial/emotional/spiritual growth can occur, along the way.

The vision is currently centered around a primary "golden triangle" including: (a) the commercial hub (The Fortune Building, or TFB) and a second semi-adjacent building/lot (the Shoe Shop), (b) two adjacent residential houses (DorchesterGrove or DG) a half mile walk away, and (c) a second residential triplex (the “Louise C. Anna” or Louisiana Triplex) equi-distant between both TFB and DG hubs. In addition, an 8 acre rural work retreat (Vinewood Farms) lies within 3 miles or a 7 minute drive away, offering workshop, garden, future additional living, and outdoor educational space… let alone a woodsy change of scenery from all else, as it’s bordered by the 170 acre city owned Richmond Hill Park. With all properties combined, 25-30 rooms or units currently (or will soon) offer affordable short and long-term housing, office, classroom, meeting, retail, workshop, and performance space within 25,000 sq. ft. A core group of 8-10 anchor tenants have traditionally occupied the much of the space mentioned above at any given time, and [somewhat in theory and somewhat in practice] they are joined by a few dozen ‘extended core members’ and hundreds of additional ‘community members’ who all live and work nearby or regularly orbit within fortunity properties

The level of commitment among members has varied, but the ultimate goal is to secure enough core players to ensure short-term initiation and long-term sustainability without delay or compromise. There is an increased need for the original prototype(s) to be finished and functional, as the potential for future expansion has always been built into the initial plan. Without clarity about exactly how long that roll-out will take to unfold, it is absolutely necessary that the need be understood by enough core members to burn through the issues that will inevitably come up in the process of living together, working towards a lofty goal, and achieving enough grass-roots support to consider it replicable within a very short period of time. (Eventually the goal is to identify urban communities in U.S. city-regions that can support a Fortune Building / fortuneXchange hub, and collaboratively birth 100 of them – two in every State.)

There are additional properties which were leased, leveraged, or bought unintentionally, and 1-3 more that were sold or would optimally be [re]purchased for future development-inclusion. During the remainder of 2011 and into 2012 all existing fortunity properties will be finished and developed/integrated in whatever way possible.

A variety of core and allied businesses and projects have been in different stages of planning, incubation, funding and birthing. During 2006-2009 an over-zealous effort was made to expand and create three divisions – related to media/communication, food/gardening, and building/energy. For a variety of reasons (including the U.S. economic situation), this overextension was followed by a sober restructuring of the core members living, working, and developing them. The result has been a slow focalizing, liquidating and re-birthing phase initiated at the end of ’09 – and which will continue through 2011, tying most businesses into the fortuneXchange in one way or another.