I cannot say I entirely grasp the concept of so-called “micro real estate investing” but it sounds interesting and is the type of innovation-via-the-arts I enjoy hearing about.

According to the Associated Press,

A Web designer is hawking square inches of an empty lot in Detroit for a dollar each to show what can be done with vacant spaces.

Jerry Paffendorf says nearly 600 “inchvestors” have bought some of the 10,000 plots for sale in the “Loveland” art-and-real-estate project on Detroit’s east side.

The 28-year-old says he bought the lot for $500 and that profits are fed back into the project.

He says some inchvestors buy one plot while others have taken 1,000, and that they may do with the land as they wish. He says some plan to construct tiny buildings.

Paffendorf told The Detroit News that he is making a statement about what can be done with foreclosed property. He told the Detroit Free Press he will stream video of the site this spring.

The project is called Loveland and the first micro-colony has been cheekily dubbed Plymouth. While both the website and the idea may induce brainfever – I kind of want my own square inch. There is a page that shows the names of donors to date, and it made me feel like this thing has some legs.

Screenshot from Jerry Paffendorf's Loveland

Anyone else have some interesting ideas for Loveland?

Tags: Business and Economy, Contemporary Art, Detroit, Fiscal Viability in the Arts

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 6:21 am and is filed under Art, Fundraising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.