🚀 Day 1 Recap: SPRE Summit 2025 Day 1 is officially in the books — and what a kickoff!
📸 SPRE Tours: Attendees explored community-driven commercial real estate in action across Los Angeles through the Little Tokyo Neighborhood Tour, the Community Spaces Tour, and the L.A. Eastside Neighborhood Tour.
🎤 Opening Reception: The SPRE community gathered on the rooftop of Hotel Per La to network and reconnect with friends old and new. One lucky attendee went home with a Community Spaces Starter Kit — featuring locally sourced snacks, coffee, one free CSN Annual Membership, and three free hours of CSN Consulting!
🏆 SPRE Awards:🌟Community Space of Excellence Award: Together Center (Redmond, WA).🌟Emergent Leader in SPRE Award: Sally-Anne Woolnough, Executive Director of Kirk Centre (Alberta). Congratulations to both winners for their incredible impact!
Thank you to all of our volunteers, the Community Vision CA team, the Community Spaces Network team, attendees, and sponsors.
It was a fantastic start to SPRE Summit 2025 — and we’re just getting started.
🚀 Day 2 Recap: A powerful day at SPRE Summit 2025
Workshops, big ideas, and meaningful connections filled the day! Here’s a snapshot of the highlights:
🎙️ Opening Plenary: Tom De Simone (President & CEO, Genesis LA) moderated a thought-provoking Opening Plenary at SPRE Summit 2025: Community Capital in Turbulent Times. Panelists Julia Duranti-Martinez (Senior Program Officer, LISC), Annie Chang (UCLA), and Catherine Howard (President, Community Vision Capital and Consulting) shared strategies for advancing community ownership of space, highlighting the vital role of social purpose real estate in building community wealth and power.💡Key themes included the role of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in providing both capital and technical assistance, the importance of mission alignment and financial readiness, and the value of early engagement and strategic partnerships. The discussion also addressed rising costs, funding cuts, and the pressing need for supportive policy and funding mechanisms to scale impact.
🛠️ Workshops: Attendees dove into real-world challenges through sessions on shared services, co-ownership, resilience hubs, sustainability, and more — all led by field practitioners and community leaders.
🥗 Themed Roundtable Lunches: Attendees connected over lunch with peers at themed tables, sparking dialogue on key social purpose real estate topics like nonprofit center operations, sustainability, marketing, and community governance.
💬 Mini Consults: Attendees joined small-group consults with experts in finance, tax credits, design, legal, and construction to get tailored advice and practical insights for their specific projects.
🥂 CSN Member Happy Hour: CSN members who connect virtually throughout the year gathered in person for happy hour. Members reconnected, shared takeaways, and welcomed newcomers curious about joining the Community Spaces Network.
🍽️Dine Around Dinners: To close out the day, attendees shared dinner and conversation at local favorites including District Restaurant, Hill Street, Zinqué, and LaLa’s Argentine Grill — reflecting on the day’s insights, exchanging ideas, and deepening relationships over great food and shared purpose.
A huge thank you to our speakers, volunteers, the Community Vision CA team, the Community Spaces Network team, our attendees, sponsors, and our host venue — the Center for Healthy Communities!
Day 2 was one for the books! Let’s finish strong! 💪
🎉 Day 3 Recap: The final day of SPRE Summit 2025 wrapped with momentum, connection, and a shared commitment to community-powered change!
Here’s how we closed it out:
📢 ClosingPlenary: Omar Carrillo Tinajero (Executive Director, Center for Community Investment) moderated the SPRE Summit 2025 Closing Plenary: How Foundations Can Finance SPRE. Panelists Erika Brice (Kresge Foundation), Chad Schwitters (McKnight Foundation), and Tracey Stewart (Colorado Health Foundation) emphasized philanthropy’s catalytic role—not as a substitute, but a bridge to public funding.💡
KeyThemes included aligning capital with community priorities, leveraging land for justice, memory, and cultural survival, and supporting shared ownership models like
CommunityLandTrusts (CLTs) and co-ops. Panelists shared pivotal shifts in their work—from housing justice manifestos to community-driven capital pools—underscoring that community voice must lead, and philanthropy must remain flexible, responsive, and committed to funding long-term systems change.
🛠️ Workshops: The learning didn’t stop! Final-day workshops focused on practical tools for scaling impact — from innovative financing and governance models to strategies for centering community voice.
📚 PeerLearningConnections: Throughout the day, informal meetups and hallway conversations led to new ideas and deeper collaboration. From co-ownership models to sustainability, resilience hubs to nonprofit operations — we didn’t just talk about community real estate, we built community in real time.
👏 ThankYou! To our speakers, volunteers, sponsors, partners, vendors, working group, host committee, co-presenters Community Vision CA, and every attendee — Thank you for showing up with vision and commitment. The movement is stronger because of you. Let’s keep building, together!
🔭 SPRESummit 2027: We look forward to keeping in touch with you until we see you at the next SPRE Summit in 2027! More details to come.