The Christie Company is a mixed-use urban development company investing at the crossroads of education reform and urban revitalization.
Our Beliefs
Maximum long-term value is best achieved
through a triple-bottom line investment strategy: increased social development,
positive environmental impact and the pursuit of highest economic returns.
Particularly in urban environments, aligning interests among stakeholders
enhances the long-term asset value of investments while reducing risks. Our
mission for education and development is to demonstrate that schools
thrive when they are located in the heart of the community. Well
designed and sensitively located schools and universities can also be
catalysts for urban revitalization even in the most difficult urban environments. Most
importantly, we believe quality educational environments can be developed
without significant public subsidies that create economic sustainability
for both the public and private investment partners.
Our Development
Strategy
By co-locating educational facilities with commercial and residential
uses, we are able to create more efficient designs that reduce overall
construction costs and enhance the ability for schools to collaborate
directly with community stakeholders. Using innovative financial structuring
techniques, we ensure affordability for our school partners while achieving
superior risk-adjusted returns to investors in urban areas that have
desirable development potential.
Our greatest advantage as a company, is our attention to absolute standards of excellence in the development process. Sustainable value is created by executing and maintaining best practice principles from the inception of every project.
Co-locating public and private uses in one integrated facility reduces construction costs and increases the level of interaction among inhabitants to support human development. This approach also minimizes the environmental impact from traffic congestion, brings local merchants closer to consumers, and enhances the public realm with diverse and dynamic activities to improve the overall quality of life on a university campus. Over the long-term, all of these factors reduce risk and increase asset value.
What we bring to our school and university partners
- Sophisticated planning and mixed-use urban development expertise.
- An ability to act as a private capital partner to accommodate a school’s immediate capacity needs without the scheduling delays typical of a protracted public construction process.
- Innovative design and financial structuring strategies to ensure affordability for schools and universities while achieving benchmark investment returns.
- Sensitive needs assessments of communities and an ability to incorporate those needs into a school development program.
- Long-term diversification of school revenues to improve financial sustainability for school partners.
- Compatibility with local municipal urban revitalization strategies or larger national reform and development initiatives.
- A network of international schools and universities to collaborate with school partners on academic development.
We determine individual development strategies by first conducting a needs assessment of the surrounding community and the school to determine how best to integrate the school and its environment in one facility. With support from construction and architectural partners, we then conduct pre-development feasibility studies to establish the optimal design program that cross-finances educational space with synergistic private uses. Finally, we work with banks to secure financing as the development partner and asset manager for the school to ensure high execution standards that protect the learning environment and provide on-going support to the urban revitalization of the surrounding community.
The Christie Company
140 Broadway - 46th Floor
New York, NY 10005
T (212) 208-1426
F (212) 858-7750
info@christiecompany.com