development philosophy

Fast forward to 2025.  Our Luxury Single Family Fund has been established since 2022.  We started building this product in 2018 and continue to date with our partner, SBR Homes.  Luxury homes fit well within our development philosophy and fulfill our mission by improving the housing stock.  We build timeless, legacy homes and many times, multigenerational estates for families to enjoy for centuries.  At a price point starting over $1.5M in destination markets and affluent urban infill locations, sales remain strong through any recession or economic downturn.  

Our first large multifamily development, which started in 2023, is in the final phase of construction with initial units now in lease-up.  Total of 376 residential units are comprised of middle-income and low-income housing, office space, and proposed retail space.  Market-rate townhomes and single family lots are also included in the development.  Prior to this, we have developed a 14-unit container home subdivision in South Knoxville as build to rent.  Property management is by Living Co-op, which provides opportunity for home ownership without any barriers and has been very successful.  Currently, Living Co-op is scaling nationwide in order to fulfill its mission.  Our future syndication plans include integrating assisted living asset class into our developments.

Philanthropic efforts include craft workforce eduction through our partner and worker-owned cooperative, Southern ICF Builders, which we helped to establish in 2021.  It is essential to our industry to promote the building trades as rewarding career options for young people starting out in life.

About Us

The DS Green Investments core team has expanded to include a project manager, two property managers for Living Co-op, and an executive assistant.  We bring together consultants and other industry experts and professionals as needed to add value to our syndications and development projects.  We partner with several builders in each market, including SBR Homes and Southern ICF Builders in select locations.  

Luxury homes in Tampa, the Florida panhandle, greater-Atlanta, Nashville, Smoky Mountains, and Blue Ridge Mountains are built with our fund and consistently pay double-digit returns to our investors (though this is not guaranteed; see disclaimer in Investor Resources tab).  Our plans are to expand to Hilton Head and Savanah next as we continue to scale this business.  Many of our customers that have purchased our homes now invest in our syndications.  (Both our fund and syndications are only open to accredited investors).

We have achieved success through a challenging economy by our continual learning and innovation, forward-thinking approach, and selection of product mix in relation to supply and demand as well as the availability of equity and financing.  We have not followed status quo and are continually reinventing ourselves and creating our own market share with little or no competition.  We do this for the best interests of our investors but also with a higher purpose of giving back to society and having a positive global impact. 

We are founded on Christian principles and believe it’s our duty to God to improve lives of others and help those less fortunate.  We accomplish this by providing home ownership to anyone through a fair, easily obtainable, and valued platform that we created, Living Co-op.

Living Co-op is a public benefit corporation that operates as a for profit housing cooperative with investors, but patron members receive most of the benefit.  Investors are paid returns as the cost of financing.  For instance, when an asset appreciates (and most of our projects do increase in value faster than inflation), the patron member receives this increase in equity.  If they move, or in our case it is also possible to grow within our community as housing needs evolve and change, this equity is returned to the member, the same as if a traditional homeowner sells and had equity in their home.  However, with our model, the upfront cost and credit requirements are almost non-existent.  If you can qualify for an apartment, you can qualify for Living Co-op membership.  There are no large upfront fees.  This is made possible by our investors while still earning a preferred return in a stabilized asset.  

We have minimum maintenance standards and work with partner organizations to reach and maintain these standards set by Living Co-op Board of Directors and to also perform routine care such as lawn service and housekeeping.  This way all our assets are categorized as Class A and B, depending on age.  

The partner organizations are also giving back to the Living Co-op Community because we encourage anyone within the Community that offers these services to have the opportunity to bid and receive rent credits or offset other expenses in exchange for the services they provide.

Membership benefits in Living Co-op also include other perks such as access to private community centers and events, vacation homes (for additional cost), and recreational activities that residents can enjoy in certain areas.  For instance, our community of SFR (single family rentals) in South Knoxville has mountain bikes that can be reserved and checked-out by residents for the many nearby trails in Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness district.

DS Green Investments is a different breed of developer.  We syndicate these deals and bring value and returns to our investors, but unlike many others, we don’t stop there.  We have a system organized so that the tenants (Living Co-op patron members) also win big time.  No one else offers this opportunity that we are aware.  If or when they do, we have some healthy competition, and this will only make our local communities stronger and provide even more benefit back to society.  This is how we make a lasting impact on the world!