Community Commerce System · An eCorp Venture
A retired school is a small town's economy waiting to be switched back on.
CommunityCorp is the operating model School Revival Fund installs in an expired public building: five uses stacked in one structure — tech, entrepreneurs, housing, connectivity and education — wired together so the building pays for itself and the neighborhood gets its center back.
Planning parameters from the School Revival Fund spec and the SchoolScore methodology — not projections.
Give the building five jobs.
Closed schools fail one at a time for the same reason: a district treats a 40,000-square-foot building as a single use, and when that use ends the building has no other job. We give it five. Each pays a piece of the carrying cost, each brings a different group through the door every day, and the combination — people living upstairs, businesses operating downstairs, classes in the evening, fiber in the walls — is what makes the place self-sustaining instead of subsidized.
The seven-layer stack
Read it bottom-up. Each layer works because the one under it exists; the commerce layer is what the whole stack is for.
Acquisition at a fraction of replacement cost; phased improvement capital; a lawful tax path (abatement, TIF, PILOT); grants and credits where the building qualifies. Returns come from the commerce layer's cash flows, not appreciation.
A local operating entity — nonprofit, cooperative or community-benefit company — runs the building day to day with a board that seats residents, tenants, the district and the fund. Uses are decided here, with the community, not imposed by the owner.
Rents, memberships, a market hall, a licensed commercial kitchen, events, services and a local marketplace — one ledger, one membership, one payment rail. This layer turns foot traffic into revenue and revenue into carrying-cost coverage.
Trades and tech training, entrepreneurship curriculum, after-school and adult education, apprenticeships tied to the businesses downstairs. Partners: community college, workforce board, and often the district itself, which keeps a program on site.
Classrooms become studios and small-business suites at below-market rents on month-to-month terms; the cafeteria becomes a shared kitchen; the shop becomes a makerspace. Tenants are the community's business owners, artists and service providers.
A share of the building — or infill on the grounds — becomes housing: live/work units for tenants, workforce units, artist residencies, short-stay rooms for visiting instructors. Housing is what keeps the building alive after 6 pm.
Fiber to the building, Wi-Fi across the campus, a small server and AV room, security and access control, a digital front door for membership, bookings, payments and the directory. Connectivity is the utility every other layer rents.
Layers 1–4 are the physical and programmatic build. Layer 5 runs on the network's rails: PayDirect.com for payments and memberships, Contrib.com for community roles, Referrals.com for growth — with SchoolBot.com and School Revival Fund as the intake side.
What each room becomes
A school is already built for people. The program maps the rooms a typical 1950s–1970s campus has to the uses in the stack, with what opens in the first 90 days marked.
| School space | Becomes | Layer | First 90 days | Revenue type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classrooms (600–900 sf each) | Studios, small-business suites, live/work units, training rooms | EntrepreneursHousing | Yes — month-to-month studios | Rent |
| Gymnasium | Market hall, event venue, indoor league, community assembly | Commerce | Yes — weekend market, events | Vendor fees, event rental |
| Cafeteria + kitchen | Licensed shared commercial kitchen, café, food-business incubator | EntrepreneursCommerce | After inspection | Kitchen hours, café lease |
| Library / media center | Learning commons, coworking, telehealth room, public computing | EducationConnectivity | Yes — coworking memberships | Memberships |
| Shop / vocational wing | Makerspace, trades training, fabrication for tenants | EntrepreneursEducation | Phase 2 | Memberships, tuition |
| Auditorium / stage | Performance and arts venue, lecture hall, film | Commerce | Phase 2 | Ticketing, rental |
| Administration suite | Operator office, district satellite, services (clinic, counseling, permits) | Governance | Yes | Service leases |
| Grounds, fields, parking | Housing infill, urban agriculture, outdoor market, solar | HousingCapital | Phase 3 | Ground lease, energy |
Not every building gets every use. The community application and the Vision Storyboard decide the mix; the space program is the menu, not the order.
One membership, one ledger, one front door
The commerce layer is a small platform, not a landlord. Everyone who uses the building — resident, tenant, student, vendor, neighbor — has one account. That account is how they book a room, pay rent, sell at the market, enroll in a class, and get paid for work done in the building.
Revenue lines
- Housing rent — live/work and workforce units; the steadiest line.
- Studio and suite rent — below-market, month-to-month, graduated as businesses grow.
- Memberships — coworking, makerspace, kitchen hours, gym.
- Market and events — vendor fees, ticketing, venue rental.
- Programs — tuition, workforce contracts, grant-funded courses.
- Connectivity — resold fiber, hosted services, AV.
- Marketplace — a small share of transactions between members that run on the building's rail.
Who does what
- RealtyFund — owner of record and capital; asset management; the tax path.
- School Revival Fund — sponsor and system operator; intake, research, playbooks, rails.
- Community operator — day-to-day management, programming, tenants, staffing; a governance seat and a share of surplus.
- District / city — seller and partner; a lawful tax path; often a retained program on site.
- Anchor partners — community college, workforce board, clinic, ISP.
- Residents, entrepreneurs, artists — the economy itself.
From closed school to open economy
Each step has a gate the next depends on. Steps 1–3 run today inside SchoolBot.com across the South and Southeast.
Federal closed-school sweep, listing alerts, owner submissions.
Web and news classification; ownership status; named contacts.
Outreach to the decision owner; learn the disposition process.
Community application, local champions, tax path, zoning path.
SchoolScore with real numbers; diligence packet; Vision Storyboard.
RealtyFund closes; operator entity formed; tax path executed.
First-90-day uses open: studios, market, coworking, operator office.
Housing and kitchen online; programs running; surplus reinvested; next building.
Where do you fit?
Owners and districts
Have a retired school?
Submit it once. SchoolBot scores it, School Revival Fund reviews it, and you hear back either way.
Submit a SchoolTowns and neighborhoods
Want your building back?
Tell us about the town, the champions, the tax path and what the neighborhood would do with the space. Alignment is half the score.
Apply as a CommunityOperators and partners
Could you run one?
Nonprofits, cooperatives, colleges, makerspace and kitchen operators, ISPs, housing partners — the people who make the layers real.
Operate a building