Apex Belltown Co-op

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 1982

What we do

We have been creating an intentional community since 1982.
The Apex is a limited-equity housing cooperative located at First Avenue and Bell Street in Seattle’s Belltown district. Apex provides its members with affordable housing and community facilities on a nonprofit basis. Apex seeks diversity of all types in its members and caters especially to people eligible for low-income housing.
We own it!
Apex members (there are about twenty-five of us) collectively own and operate 38% of the building (the upper two floors; the owner of ground level retail owns the remaining portion). This ownership translates to a lot of freedom, responsibility, and community involvement on the part of members.

Our Mission

To live and maintain our home together happily, harmoniously, and affordably.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Coliving

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1982
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 1984
  • Started living together
  • 19 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
25

How to join

We have 2 openings for October 1st!
Membership limited to 21 members. New members are sought whenever a member moves out. Vacancies listed on our website as they occur.
How our membership selection process works:
1) When we have an opening we give tours and accept applications until the deadline posted on the website. (All applicants MUST tour in person: no exceptions are ever made. When there are no openings we don’t accept applications and keep nothing “on file”.)
2) We review the applications as a group and invite a few candidates to interview.
3) We hold in-person interviews and then decide whether to offer membership to candidates.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

*COVID update* Limited visitors or tours. Please call or email us to schedule a tour or to attend one of our periodic potlucks. We cannot host overnight guests. COVID restrictions are in effect.

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Majority Vote

More than 50% agreement needed.

Governance structure

  • Representative/Democratic

Members elect leaders who make decisions within defined roles.

Conflict resolution approach

The apex has a yearly-rotating Board of Directors, which has legal and fiduciary responsibility for the coop. All major decisions affecting the coop, however, are made by the membership as a whole.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Join fee: $3006
Regular fees: $509
Labor: Yes (3 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Weekly chores, committee service, yearly building-maintenance work parties. Share price refunded upon end of membership. Monthly fee varies by room size. See website for details.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Library, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 1-3 times per month

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Multi-generational (all ages well represented)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Urban

Within city limits with access to urban amenities and infrastructure.

Community type

  • Coliving

    Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
    kitchens, dining, and social areas.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Energy sources used

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%
  • Land area size
    0.2 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Washington, United States

Apex Belltown Co-op

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
5 days ago

Co-housing Unit For Sale in Portland Oregon

Light-filled 976 sq ft, 3-bedroom, 1-bath end unit in Columbia Ecovillage, Portland’sestablished cohousing community in the Cully neighborhood. With windows onthree sides, this ground-floor home gets natural light all day, even onPortland’s grey ones. The open living and dining area has warm hardwood floors and flows into akitchen with solid wood cabinets and granite counters. The dining roomwindows look straight into a native vine maple — a wall of green from springthrough fall. There’s good storagein the unit, plus an extra storage space in the community storage building.A ductless mini-split provides efficient heating and air conditioning, andthe plumbing was fully replaced in 2026. The primary bedroom has a full-width closet behind a sliding barn door; thesecond bedroom’s closet sits behind a pair of French doors. The thirdbedroom has no closet, which makes it a flexible room — guest room, office,or playroom. Step out the sliding glass door onto your own covered patio, which opens onto the community grounds: organic gardens, personal garden plots,greenhouses, a grape arbor, a bamboo grove, native plantings throughout, andtrees everywhere — including a truly massive old black walnut. The orchard alone is a reason to live here — to name a few:apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes,blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, in several varieties each. A75,000-gallon rainwater catchment system keeps it all watered through thesummer. Kids have a playhouse, sandbox, small soccer field, a favorite climbingtree, and a parking loop where bikes can circle but cars can’t; adults havea workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space and big community porches. The common hall is the heart of the village: a commercial kitchen anyresident can use, a kids’ play area, pool table and ping pong, and asoapstone stove that burns every winter evening. Residents can reserve it forevents for almost nothing. The historic farmhouse has guest rooms owners canbook for visiting family (about 30 nights a year). Shared laundry rooms(three washers and dryers) come with indoor drying racks and outdoorclotheslines, and there’s a craft room and a trade room where things you nolonger need find a new home next door. Potlucks, communitymeals, work parties, and acres of safe space for kids to roam makethis a rare chance to own a home and a neighborhood at the same time. Built in 1973 and fully remodeled in 2008–09 for energy efficiency and healthy indoor air — metal roof, HardiePlank siding, and standard community-built finishes throughout. Nothing to update, nothing deferred. The $522 monthly HOA coverswater, sewer, and garbage, plus the roof, siding, exterior paint, and allstructural maintenance — and it’s what pays for the grounds, the common hall,and everything else described above. And it’s close in: Cully’s cafés andparks are a short walk or bike ride away, the rest of Portland’s food,music, and neighborhoods are minutes beyond that, and the commute downtownor to the airport is easy by car, bus, or bike – 3.7-acre grounds with organic gardens, personal plots, greenhouses, native plantings, and mature trees (huge black walnut)- Orchard: apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries- 75,000-gallon rainwater catchment feeds the gardens year-round- Workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space, community porches  
Need
  • Forming Communities
2 weeks ago

A call for pioneers, trade-builders, and the four Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype.

Intake Open: Flagship WE Network Village in Clubb, MO Call for pioneers, trade-builders, and 4 Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype. WE Network is opening ground zero in Clubb, Missouri—our living model to build trade shops and train leadership teams for nationwide village rollout. We are building a self-sustaining, salvaged homestead ecosystem operating as a parallel society alongside existing systems. Bring your own living setup (tents, micro-campers, trucks, schoolies, tiny homes) to secure your lot within the co-op village. The 3×3 Exchange: Mental, Physical, & Spiritual Maintain your lot via our 3×3 exchange (3 hours/day, 3 days/week = 9 hours total): Mental: Classroom teaching, strategy, skill-sharing, and village instruction. Physical: Hands-on labor building active land and shop projects. Spiritual: Participation in our weekly Friday Fellowship Fire Circle. Trade Shops & Lot Placement Every member contributes directly to our local micro-economy: Trade Holders: Set up your specific service shop for the co-op. Transitioning Members: Assigned a trade lot to focus on constructing the physical shop structure. Weekend Operations: Retail open Saturdays and Sundays. Mid-week is reserved for building and life. Priority Intake: The Four Elemental Elders We are recruiting four foundational Elders: Earth Elder: Land, soil, livestock, permaculture, and natural materials. Air Elder: Building structures and Eco Junk waste-to-material upcycling. Fire Elder: Spiritual health, Natural Law, body healing, and Fire Circles. Water Elder: Resource flow, food storage, bookkeeping, and services. How to Apply 👉 Visit fffc.wtf to submit your intake request today.
Need
Offer

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