Over Half Way to our $1.5 Million Co-op Owner Loan Goal!
We have an exciting update on the status of our Stronger Together: Rooted in Rock Co-op Owner Loan Campaign. We have now raised $870,000 dollars since our annual meeting. Thank you to all of those of you who have invested! Now, I invite everyone who has been sitting on the sidelines to consider joining in now. We only have 6 weeks to raise the last $630,000 dollars.
We want to secure our home in Northampton–at a price that will save us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the long term. Twenty years ago, original cooperators worked extensively to raise funds, secure a site, and build our store. Buying the property at that time was out of reach, but now, with over 17,000 owners, we believe $1.5 million in loans are possible.
Seeking New Investors!
Now, we invite new investors to participate. With loans starting as low as $1,000 with terms between 5 and 10 years, this is an excellent opportunity to invest in Main Street, not Wall Street. Our interest rates are competitive and range between 3.5% and 6% depending on the amount and terms you select. See the table of terms and rates below.
Our Co-op was founded by many people contributing what they could towards a dream of an independent, community-owned cooperative grocery store– one that provided a critical retail market for our region’s farms and food producers. This past year, nearly $13 million of our wholesale purchases were for local foods and products, and we are proud of our role as an economic engine in our food system and local economy. We also donated over $140,000 back to our community nonprofits, like the Center for New Americans , among many others.
Get in Touch:
If you are interested in talking to us about this opportunity, we have several ways to do so:
- Schedule a call to speak with a Director about this opportunity, email invest@rivervalley.coop, or leave a voice message at (413) 400-0100 to let the Co-op’s Capital Campaign Committee know when is best to reach you.
- Tuesdays, visit the Northampton store from 9:00am-12:00pm or the Easthampton store from 3:00pm-6:00pm
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Saturday, November 22nd from 11:00am-1:00pm at both stores
Again, thank you to all who have already invested. Together, we are ensuring that River Valley Co-op remains a cornerstone of our regional food system for decades to come.
River Valley Co-op’s Board of Directors is seeking 60-70 more co-op owners to help us reach the $1.5 million goal to secure our Northampton store location, protecting our right to continue business here as long as we choose.
Will you be one of the co-op members that helps make this a reality by making an individual loan to your co-op?
Thank you for your support and consideration of being part of this exciting project to own the Northampton property that we built our store on in 2007-2008. We are stronger together, and you can help to keep us solidly rooted in our beloved Northampton quarry location.
Owner Loan Informational Sessions
The Board of Directors will be holding the following events throughout the fall and welcome you to join us:
- October 14th Tuesday | Northampton | 9:00AM-12:00PM
- October 14th Tuesday | Easthampton | 3:00PM-6:00PM
Stronger Together: Rooted in Rock Invest Now to Help Buy our Northampton Co-op Property
In 2005, our co-op took root in a long-abandoned rock quarry in Northampton and opened for business in 2008. We have a 20-year land lease on this site that ends December 28th, 2025. We're incredibly grateful to be able to offer our co-op membership the opportunity to invest locally in a co-op owner loan to Northampton Community Cooperative Market, Inc., for the purchase of the property that we built our Northampton store on. This loan investment offering is available from September 4th, 2025, to December 5th, 2025.
Our goal is to obtain loans of $1.5 million from our current co-op members by the end of December 2025 through approximately 150 individual co-op owner loans averaging $10,000 each. The minimum loan level is $1,000, and a maximum loan is $250,000. We are offering simple, non-compounding interest rates up to 5% for loans below $15,000, and up to 6% for loans of $15,000 and above. These loans have five to ten-year terms.
The purpose of these loans is to position the co-op for the purchase of the property currently occupied by our Northampton store. Our twenty-year land lease term ends December 28, 2025, and includes this option to purchase at the end.
Thank you to all of you who have already spoken with a board member, attended the virtual information session, or made a loan. As of this morning, we already have $409,000 in loans received and $608,000 pledged for our Stronger Together: Rooted in Rock campaign. We would love to see you at any of our upcoming events, where we are excited to speak with you and are prepared to receive loans – we are ready when you are!
Owner Loan Informational Sessions
The Board of Directors will be holding the following events throughout the fall and welcome you to join us:
- October 14th Tuesday | Northampton | 9:00AM-12:00PM
- October 14th Tuesday | Easthampton | 3:00PM-6:00PM
Contact Us for More Information
To hear more in person about this investment opportunity, please join us at an information session or at our kick-off event on the Northampton store’s patio on Saturday, September 13th, from 1-3 pm! On the 13th, we will have live music and refreshments to accompany our conversations about this sweet investment opportunity.
If you are unable to attend events or would prefer a phone conversation, please use this Owner Co-op Loan Conversation Sign Up link to book a meeting with a Board member. A Board member will call you at the designated time. Zoom calls are also an option, upon request, or, if you prefer, you can respond to this email (invest@rivervalley.coop) or leave a voice message at (413) 400-0100 to let the Co-op’s Capital Campaign Committee know when is best to reach you as well as the best phone number for calling you.
Thanks again for all of your support for our Co-op and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Stronger Together: Rooted in Rock Invest Now to Help Buy our Northampton Co-op Property
9-4-2025
Our 20-Year Northampton Land Lease Ends in 2025
Our Board of Directors is pleased to announce we have an exciting opportunity for co-op owners to help purchase the land which we built our beloved Northampton store on. Our 20-year land lease comes to an end on December 28th, 2025. When we negotiated the lease back in 2005, we were able to include a one-time option to purchase the land at the end of the 20-year term. It is hard to believe twenty years have passed already!
The lease provided an option for us to purchase the land at the current fair market value, excluding the value of the building and other improvements that we’ve made (and paid for) to transform the vacant site into our food co-op. You may recall our Northampton store site was formerly a rock quarry that shut down in 1921 and had not been developed in any way over the years until the co-op began construction in 2007 to make it a viable retail location for our food co-op.
Over the past year and a half, the Board of Directors conducted calls with our existing Co-op owner-lenders to help us to determine the feasibility and support for this purchase, and received overwhelming enthusiasm. Earlier this year, we reached an agreement on the price for the land for a total of $1.35 million. We are now launching a campaign to raise $1.5 million dollars which will cover the purchase cost, our legal costs, and help defray some of the rock wall maintenance this year. The price of the property is reasonable compared to our annual lease rate, making this a highly beneficial real estate purchase, funneling our use of capital formerly for rent into the investment in owning the property.
To make this purchase possible, we need to raise the funding from our co-op owners. For more context, we hope you’ve seen our most recent Annual Report, which includes a lot of information about our current challenges and progress.
The opportunity to purchase the land at $1.35 million will help us secure our future by ensuring our co-op owns both of our retail locations. This prevents a landlord from raising our rents beyond our financial capacity to keep our current locations in operation or selling the property to another owner and being required to vacate the property. The loan payments to owners at this price will be cost-neutral in comparison to our current annual rent expenses. Based on what we would be paying in the future with increased rates, the Co-op will save hundreds of thousands of dollars over time by purchasing the property instead of renting it. That option would be far riskier and more expensive for our co-op, making it an option of last resort for River Valley Co-op if we cannot raise the funds we need for the purchase.
The co-op’s growth and stability are reliant upon co-op owner participation both as shoppers and as lenders. We are launching this owner loan campaign to raise the $1.35 million to complete that purchase, and must raise the full amount required by the end of December 2025. The opportunity to invest in our co-op is an opportunity to invest in our shared community asset, our locally owned and controlled grocery stores. We are excited to offer loans starting at $1,000 and up to $250,000 to existing co-op owners, and have scheduled several information sessions where owners can meet with the Board of Directors to learn more about the investment opportunity and how loans to the co-op work. Our goal is for 150 co-op owners to invest an average loan of $10,000 each in this project to buy our Northampton store property. We know this is not an option everyone can participate in, and some will invest at the $1,000 level, while others will invest at much higher levels than $10,000. The beauty of the co-op is that together we collectively support the co-op business we own in a wide variety of ways, from our $150 member equity investment and shopping in the stores to participating in events and projects, including investing in interest-bearing co-op owner loans.
General Interest Form
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