Taking a non-profit school from concept to reality in less than two years is no easy task.    For his successful work on meeting this challenge for Los Angeles’ new location for the Rudolf Steiner Westside Waldorf School, William Utnehmer, CRE, was the honored recipient of the 2007 James Felt Creative Counseling Award of The Counselors of Real Estate, which was presented to him at the CRE Midyear Meetings in Montreal in April.  Utnehmer is a principal of CW Development Partners of Los Angeles, California, and a Board Member of the Westside Waldorf School, a private pre-school and elementary school founded in 1988. 

Utnehmer was selected for his creative real estate consulting work on the overall development, financing, and ongoing stability of a new campus of the Westside Waldorf School, which opened January 8, 2007.  The Waldorf School’s educational philosophy is a 90-year-old methodology that nurtures children to think critically and to cultivate a deep sense of moral, social and ecological integrity. 

Says Jeffrey Graham, Executive Director of Development at the Westside Waldorf School, “I am personally and deeply grateful to Bill for his selfless commitment of his professional expertise to the school in accomplishing this truly colossal task.  His efforts in developing this dream project for our school will be serving our children, teachers and community for generations to come.  As a seasoned real estate attorney myself, I congratulate Bill for this outstanding personal and professional achievement.”

In collaboration with Jeffrey Graham, Utnehmer’s vision and dedication made it possible for the Waldorf School to navigate through myriad administrative and civic requirements, and take the project from initiation to completion in less than two years. 

The consulting work addressed an array of issues: 

• Enlisting the pro bono assistance of an architect to determine space requirements
• Retaining an experienced real estate broker to survey the local real estate market
• Leading an extensive search of potential properties
• Drafting and executing a letter of intent with the owner of the land
• Completing a comprehensive study of existing zoning code, building permits, certificates of occupancy and land use requirements to ensure efficient and rapid progress
• Developing an itemized construction budget and schedule
• Creating and launching a tiered capital campaign program
• Drafting loan and guarantee documents
• Recapitalizing the project through tax-exempt bond financing from the state of California's Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank

Utnehmer’s firm, CW Development Partners, is a real estate development firm dedicated to building with environmental integrity. CWDP has approximately $100 million of real estate under development in California, Washington and Missouri.

THE JAMES FELT CREATIVE COUNSELING AWARD
The Felt Creative Counseling Award honors outstanding achievement and ingenuity in real estate counseling by the members The Counselors of Real Estate, a professional organization for leading advisors. A peer-review committee selects the award recipient.  Established in 1992, the award honors the memory of James “Jack” Felt, CRE, a prominent real estate pioneer and founding member of The Counselors of Real Estate. The award reflects Felt’s personal and professional standards, ethics, integrity and creativity demonstrated throughout his real estate career.