Testimonials from Client Communities
Quimper Village
“I just want to give you my personal thanks for all the advice and help you have given us.
I learned at the Aging Better Together Cohousing Conference that Quimper Village is unusual for the speed that we are moving at. You are a HUGE part of that. I’ve been in many meetings where somebody says, “Well, what would Katie do?” when looking for the right solution.
Thank you for making this your life’s work and for being so darn good at it.
- Cheron Dudley, Quimper Village Resident, Port Townsend, WA
Washington Commons
“Yesterday, (2/25/16) Katie and I met with a major developer in our town. I was nervous about the meeting a few days ahead, but realized after she and I had our planning meeting that everything would work out fine. I was more than pleased!
My training is in city planning and so I’m fairly knowledgeable about development and planning regulations etc. However Katie’s knowledge and experience with the development process is unsurpassed. She was able to answer all sorts of questions about what makes cohousing work from the developers perspective. As I said to her at the end of the meeting, “You really earned your money today, Katie!”
Even more exciting, I think we’ve interested this developer in working with us, in which case, we will move into the next stage of our cohousing development process. Thank you Katie!”
- Anne Geraghty, Future Resident of Washington Tommons, West Sacramento, CA
PDX Commons
“Founding members of PDX Commons had read all of the cohousing books, poured over cohousing list-serves and visited existing Portland cohousing projects. We are all smart professionals, including two members with extensive real estate development experience. We don’t need to hire a cohousing consultant; we can figure this out ourselves, right? Wrong! Wrong! And Wrong!
We began working with Katie McCamant in 2013. After two years, we still count on her expertise to keep us out of trouble. Her breadth and depth of cohousing and development experience offered us a unique skill set that has served us well time and time again.
Katie skillfully facilitated our three interactive design workshops with our architects and developers. Her experience knowing what worked and didn’t for other communities helped us make wise choices about our own common areas and individual units.
Katie has learned the cohousing business thoroughly and lived through the deep recession of the late 2000’s. She clearly and steadfastly argues that we need to be aware of our budget and only invest in things that really add value to our project. Her advice is steeped in a rich tea of experience.
Turns out that the investment in Katie has helped our project save time and money in so many ways – giving us templates to start our legal documents, outlining the overall deal structure and helping to negotiate contracts with our consultants.
In addition to all above accolades, Katie is just so fun to work with. She’s always responsive to our questions in a timely manner, good natured, full of anecdotes and flexible. She’s made our why do we need a consultant? naysayers into true supporters of our decision.”
- Susan Fries & Lew Bowers, PDX Commons Residents, Portland, OR
​
Raven's Roost
Ravens’ Roost Cohousing in Anchorage received veryexciting news last week. They were given a commitment for a nearly $9 Million construction loan from a local bank! The group worked long and hard, given support from Katie at CoHousing Solutions, with residents putting their money and time behind their belief in a walkable neighborhood where they can know all of their neighbors. These cohousers-to-be have much to celebrate.
“Thank you so much for all of the work you did on our behalf, with both Peterson Group [Ravens’ Roost development partner] and the banks. Katie, your experience, knowledge, and charm in persuading them [First National Bank Alaska] to take the leap of faith with us was absolutely critical in our accomplishing both of these partnerships. We are so grateful!”
- Terri Pauls, Resident of Raven's Roost, Anchorage, AK
​
Wolf Creek Lodge
“I have known Katie McCamant since the fall of 2007 when I become a member of the Wolf Creek Lodge cohousing group. During the years I have known her, Katie has shown an ability to stay cool and focused under pressure and to work with humor, honesty and integrity.
Katie’s demonstrated an ability to work across many disciplines – from negotiating legal documents to developing marketing strategy.
Katie led every aspect of the Wolf Creek Lodge project, including developing the initial vision of what it could become and the recruiting of buyers and investors. She led the political entitlement process, including working with the neighborhood, coordinating and managing all of the consultants, working with the attorneys on all legal documents including initial land purchase agreements, formation of the initial limited liability companies, and the homeowner association documents. She negotiated construction contracts and acted as Owner’s Representative during construction, sales and marketing, through the warranty period.
Katie’s a person who can get the work done against all odds.”
- Pat Elliott, Resident of Wolf Creek Lodge, Grass Valley, CA
OakCreek
“Buildings 1 and 2 are framed so I spent time this afternoon looking at the views from each, getting a feel for the rooms, etc. It is absolutely mind boggling how we got to this point. And I remind myself we would be NO place without you. We always talk to groups about the “hard to put a dollar figure” on the benefits of having you as development consultant. We give our very genuine, heartfelt endorsement. I can’t thank you enough for you vision, hard work, and wealth of knowledge, Katie.”
- Pat Darlington, Resident of Oakcreek Senior Cohousing, Stillwater, OK
UDP, Development Partner
“Katie McCamant’s guidance and engagement in the development of PDX Commons has been vital to the success of our project. As a developer, I appreciate Katie’s deep knowledge of the development process, and her broad understanding of the developer, banker, contractor, and architect perspective.
With her support, we have been able to move our project forward, on-time and on-budget, while maintaining a positive, healthy relationship with our co-housing clients. Bringing Katie, the preeminent co-housing development expert in the United States, on board for our project was one of the best decisions our team made.”
- Eric Cress, PDX Commons Development Partner, UDP