Page 17 - 07_Sept-2025

Business
The People’s Portfolio
A new co-operative wants locals to reshape
downtown redevelopment
by Ximena González
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-oper-
ative since 2022, suggested it to her.
The Alberta Block is
only the beginning of
a larger venture.
“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 electrifi-
cation co-ops. Co-ops go where the
market is not ready to go, and govern-
ment 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.” ED.
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