Crowdfunding Colombia’s Tallest Building
According its developers BD Bacatá is the world’s first skyscraper to be built by common people.
At 66 stories the structure will be Colombia’s tallest building when it is completed, and the first ever crowdfunded skyscraper.
The edifice comes with a price tag to match its colossal size. However, instead of relying on developers and banks to fund the required $240 million, a different model was proposed – have Colombians fund the building themselves.
“How could we turn an 853-foot building with an investment cost of $240 million into a product that is affordable to all?” the developers ask in a promotional video (see below).
The answer they came up with is to divide the skyscraper into thousands of identical parts known as FiDis – Figura Internacional de Inversión Inmobiliaria (FiDi) – a type of share that gives the investor ownership rights to part of the physical building and its profits.
An extensive advertising campaign was unleashed on billboards, TV, radio and in newspapers and magazines. To date, more than 3,000 people have invested in a share of the building, raising $145 million.
The building is due to be completed in 2014 and will house apartments, offices, entertainments venues, and retail spaces.
Crowdfunding Cities of the Future
If BD Bacatá is a success, the next step according to some observers could be to crowdfund and develop not just buildings but our cities. Whether or not that becomes reality remains to be seen of course, but through crowdfunding and open innovation initiative citizens are having more of an influence in how their environments and neighborhoods are constructed.
For example, Copenhagen residents building a new bridge and UK communities crowdfunding public works projects through the online platform Spacehive.
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