Arlington, VA (July 10, 2025) — National Cooperative Bank (NCB), a leading financial institution dedicated to providing banking solutions to cooperatives and socially responsible organizations nationwide recently made an equity investment in Frolic Community to expand a new cooperative housing model to bring affordable housing to urban markets.
Frolic Community, headquartered in Seattle, Washington is a mission-driven real estate developer focused on building cooperative housing communities. The organization partners with single-family homeowners to co-develop multi-family housing on their properties. Homes can then be purchased with low down payments and are affordable to middle-income families.
“We are extremely excited to work with and make an equity investment into Frolic Community”, stated Casey Fannon, President and CEO of National Cooperative Bank. “Frolic has a very innovative model to bring affordable cooperative housing to more urban markets and we are committed to their success.”
The Frolic development model aligns incentives between buyers who want to purchase their first home, financial institutions that want to support affordable homeownership, and current homeowners who want to help their neighborhoods grow in a sustainable way. It is a way to add gentle density to neighborhoods experiencing development pressure without displacing existing communities.
“NCB has been at the forefront of financing cooperatives for decades, and we couldn’t ask for better partners as we expand our work,” said Tamara Knox, CEO and Co-founder of Frolic Community. “This partnership unlocks the potential to scale nationwide and transform how our neighborhoods grow to meet our country’s need for more homes. NCB’s investment ensures our model works within conventional banking systems.”
In 2024, Frolic completed its first project Corvidae Co-op with co-developer and architect Allied8, and currently has 5 projects in development between Washington and California and waitlists of over 100 landowner partners and 800 homebuyers. At scale, the team sees their model as a way to build a more inclusive middle class, prevent displacement, and help address the housing crisis. The term “Frolic” describes a tradition in which hundreds of families gather to raise a barn in one week, a combination of shared vision, celebration, and group effort. They believe Frolics are a demonstration of what is possible when a community comes together to build its future. Learn more at https://www.frolic.community
