2016 Community Impact Awards: Pro Bono Projects

Gold Award:
Kinzer Partners
Location: Seattle | Employees: 12 | Top Exec: Craig Kinzer, founding partner | kinzer.com

Kinzer Partners employees have dedicated countless volunteer hours to community-focused organizations, including Marys Place, a leading voice for homeless women, children and families. Kinzer was begun 20 years ago by Craig Kinzer. Today, the firm includes a team of brokers who help guide the real estate decisions of Seattle area businesses and organizations like Seattle Childrens, PCC Natural Markets and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Corporate real estate should go beyond cost per square foot and a great location, says Kinzer partner Kris Richey Curtis. We believe that happiness and the productivity of employees depend on a thriving and engaged community with access to all basic resources housing, health, safety and nature as well as access to jobs, affordable housing, transportation and a rich talent pool. Accordingly, Kinzer Partners helped secure a former Travelodge property owned by Amazon.com for use by Marys Place as a temporary emergency shelter. Like Kinzer, Amazon believes big things happen when people come together to work and solve problems. Amazons ability to reopen and energize a shuttered [building], offering the facility to Marys Place free of charge, became a game changer for an organization whose goal is to ensure no child will sleep outside in the city of Seattle, says John Schoettler, Amazons director of global real estate and facilities.