One of their first projects, 1351 H Street NE, a tear-down building in Washington’s H Street Northeast neighborhood, will include a Taiwanese ramen restaurant run by a chef with a local following, food stalls and a retail shop — an idiosyncratic project that would have been a hard sell for conventional investors. But scores of neighborhood residents were happy to invest an average of $2,000 each.

That first deal took three months to close. A subsequent offering — for $320,000 worth of shares in 1539 Seventh Street NW, a 3,600-square-foot building in the Shaw neighborhood — sold out in three hours. And the 906 H Street deal was on track to sell out.

The investing public will also benefit from appreciation of the property — a new streetcar line that will run down H Street is expected to accelerate a revival already under way and bolster real estate values.

Gina Schafer, the owner of several Ace hardware stores in the Washington area, invested in two Fundrise projects. “I thought it was cool the minute I saw it,” she said. “We don’t own our hardware store spaces, because real estate is so expensive here, but wish we could.” The H Street projects are “a way for us to get involved in the crazy D.C. real estate market and support our local community.” She said that her first dividend payment was on its way.