Development Advisors principals (“Advisors”) serve both public and private schools from daycare, pre‐school through high school. Advisors perform strategic planning (including charter development), site acquisition, resource development (including financing), new building development, property renovation and property disposition services for school stakeholders.
Advisors help its education Clients create new places for learning, maturing and growing relationships in a productive and safe environment. We lead our education Clients through the process of acquiring an existing facility (as their agent) for lease or purchase which requires remodeling. We also frequently lead our education Clients through the process of acquiring land and developing a new facility from scratch. In all purchase scenarios, we assist with the most complicated aspect of any education project—arranging for financing.
Advisors can also help its school Clients dispose of their current real estate for the highest possible selling price. Sometimes the highest selling price can only be achieved by contemplating a redevelopment of the property for a different use. In this case, Advisors employs a Strategic Disposition approach to accomplish this. Please refer to the separate description of Advisors’ Strategic Disposition service specialty.
The ability of school districts to attain increasing standards of performance continues to be challenged by many factors. These factors include declining enrollments, decaying physical plants, changing demographics, and funding requests that have overwhelmed voters.
Charter schools, a public school phenomenon that began in Colorado in 1992, continue to thrive. In 2007, 56,458 students attended 141 charter schools in Colorado. This amounted to over 7% of K‐12 public school enrollment in the state. Private schools and Charter schools alike offer both parents and children the opportunity to choose their educational venue and to participate in new learning paradigms. Today, many charter and private schools achieve academic successes beyond those in the traditional district schools.
In today’s environment, finding the best solutions to a school’s real estate needs often requires creative, outside‐the‐box thinking and execution. Advisors provide this highly specialized expertise.
Advisors provide the following services for its school real estate Clients:
- organizing founding committee and leadership structure (including establishing mission & vision);
- charter program management (organization legal structure & formation, charter application, governance structure, curriculum, etc.);
- strategic location planning (including analyzing competitor penetration);
- financial feasibility analysis (capacity to lease existing building or develop ground‐up);
- sale of existing property (if applicable);
- acquisition of new property (or perhaps redevelopment options);
- comprehensive project management including project team selection (architects, engineers, contractor, attorney, consultants, etc.);
- project financing (debt arrangements and cost accounting);
- construction management (as owner’s advocate);
- furniture, fixtures and equipment planning & move coordination; and
- as needed, comprehensive and coordinated communication with all decision‐makers involved with a school’s real estate decisions (Board, staff, parents, real estate committee, members, school district, etc.).
The following is a partial list of school Clients that have been served by Advisors in the Metropolitan Denver area:
- Renaissance Charter School
- Mission Hills Church Early Learning Center
- Trinity Place Schools (2 projects)
- Hand Prints Early Education Centers
- Banning Lewis Ranch Charter School
- Global Village Academy
Advisors Principals strongly recommend that schools hire professional assistance for their real estate projects. By doing so, the school is able to focus on what it does best — education. Utilizing parents, teachers or friends of the school to manage expansion or lead development projects is usually not the best solution to accomplish the school’s objectives. The direct involvement of parents in project management often interferes with accountability and can compromise a school’s opportunity to obtain the best services and prices available.