What Are We Doing?

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW:

Over the past 25+ years, there have been a number of socially or environmentally responsible business ventures considered -- a small number of which were actually started in-house. However, at least half of those involved the housing or sponsoring of non-fortunity residents/members.

During 2006-2009 an over-zealous effort was made to expand and create three active divisions – related to media/communication, food/gardening, and alternative building/energy. For a variety of reasons (including the U.S. economic downturn), this overextension was followed by a sober restructuring and downsizing -- including most of the core members living, working, and developing them. The end result has been a slow focalizing, liquidating, and re-birthing phase over the past decade. This effort continues today, and will eventually tie most core businesses directly together in one way or another.

Thus our immediate goal is to continue renting, using, or otherwise creatively trading/selling/refinancing some of the existing assets to create more stable sources of revenue. With 5-10 projects on our current list, only a few are active or on the front burner. The rest simmer quietly in the background waiting for a full course meal one of these days.  ;)  Ultimately, we hope to grow businesses which will both support fortunity's mission and core membership while also joining the greater Asheville/regional potluck of creative community visions already established.

Our current business interests continue to be varied -- primarily involving the sustainable use of residential & commercial space, creative information gathering, gardening & farming, healing & personal growth, and future food service & retail plans. Meeting and educational spaces are available in The Fortune Building, which is the slowly re-opening front end flagship of fortunity itself. It is truly the essence of why we're here patiently planning and preparing what we hope can eventually open in grand style, and then replicate elsewhere in the future.

Keep in touch, watch us grow, or get involved in whatever way you can as we re-invent ourselves and each other in the process.