Stories and Lessons from La Colmena, a Cooperative Hub Held in Community Trust

For nearly two decades, residents of Santa Ana, California have organized around a bold idea: that working people deserve to own their economic future. That vision took physical form in 2025 with the opening of La Colmena, the city’s first community-led land trust project. On a 16,000 square-foot site, two worker-owned cooperatives — La Milpa Café and SALSA Food Hub — and a small artisan business, Duugich Art, now operate on land held permanently in community trust, offering an alternative to the displacement and rising rents that have long threatened small, immigrant-owned businesses in the neighborhood.

This report tells the story of how La Colmena came to be, from early organizing and relationship-building through construction, opening, and its first year of operation. Engage R+D served as the evaluation and learning partner for this work, documenting the journey in close collaboration with Cooperación Santa Ana, THRIVE Santa Ana, Community Hub de Santa Ana, and Radiate Consulting. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and a community survey of 92 visitors, the report captures the essential conditions — trust, patient capital, flexible systems, and sustained accompaniment — that made this model possible, and offers guidance for communities, cities, and funders who want to build something similar.