One evening in May, a group of Edmontonians stopped by the Alberta Block on Jasper Avenue for more than just after-work cocktails. Tegan Martin-Drysdale (Top 40, ’10), an entrepreneur and real estate developer, was hosting an open house to introduce her latest venture, Homestead Investment Co-operative, an innovative project she launched last year in partnership with former mayor Don Iveson (Top 40, ’09), now a public policy consultant.
Gathered on the iconic building’s second floor, guests listened to her pitch. Martin-Drysdale recounted her journey from buying a small share of the Alberta Block in 2013, shortly after CKUA vacated the building, to attracting like-minded entrepreneurs to a co-working space where they have set their ideas in motion. “I didn’t want to work alone,” she told attendees.
Since then, all but one of the shareholders have been bought out: Martin-Drysdale. Over the last 10 years, the Alberta Block has welcomed over 400 businesses, including her company RedBrick Real Estate Services, Iveson’s consultancy Civic Good, Next Architecture, and over 1,000 past and present members who share the building’s co-working space. This eclectic mix of activities has created a distinctive buzz on the downtown block, inspiring Martin-Drysdale to champion accessible options for Albertans to invest in local real estate. However, she explained, unlike a real estate trust, the co-operative model allows shareholders to actively participate in decision-making. Each co-op member has one vote, regardless of whether their shares are worth the minimum $10,000 or more.
“This,” she said, “is an opportunity to invest in the first building in a portfolio of Alberta real estate assets. It’s an opportunity to invest in your local community.”
After the presentation, attendees toured the 1909 building, curious about the potential of co-operative ownership. It would take time for them to absorb the logistics, just as it did for Martin-Drysdale a few years ago when Iveson, who has served as an advisor for an Ontario insurance and financial co-operative since 2022, suggested it to her.
“There’s actually an amazing tradition of co-operatives in Alberta,” Iveson said in a phone call from Toronto, where he had been chairing a board meeting of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “A lot of the power lines in rural Alberta weren’t built by the utility companies that own them today; they were built by entities like rural electrification co-ops. Co-ops go where the market is not ready to go, and government can’t go.”
By pooling their resources, members are set to buy the Alberta Block before September 29, the closing date for the offering, and grow their investment each year. (Martin-Drysdale’s value of the shares will transfer to the investment co-op.) The number of available co-op memberships are limited to 900.
The Alberta Block, they hope, is only the beginning of a larger venture. One building at a time, Iveson and Martin-Drysdale plan to expand Homestead Investment Co-operative across the province. “We want to create a portfolio of buildings owned by hundreds of people who are invested in our city and then grow that across Alberta,” said Iveson. “That doesn’t just help Edmonton’s downtown; that helps Alberta and keeps people engaged.”
This article appears in the September 2025 issue of Edify
