ULI member David L. Waltemath ranks among the top residential developers in the New Orleans metro area. ULI recently sat down with David, Scott and Kelly Waltemath to profile their real estate development operation.
ULI: How did you get started in real estate development?
DW: I’ve always been involved. Two generations of my family were successful real estate developers before me. My father, Henry “Hank” Waltemath, carved out many of the major neighborhoods in Algiers on the Westbank of New Orleans.
Today, I’m proud to say, we have a fourth generation involved in our developments. My son, Scott Waltemath, has a passion for development. He serves as Director of Builders and Lot Sales on our projects. My daughter, Kelly Waltemath, is a recent LSU graduate and is already a multi-million dollar producing Realtor® with Keller Williams New Orleans. She is Director of New Construction and Resales for our group and also lists private homes on both sides of Lake Pontchartrain.
I shouldn’t omit my wife, Kathy, either. She has made way too many civic contributions to cover, including past president and board member of the Louisiana Children’s Museum, which she helped found. Community involvement should not be under estimated.
ULI: When did you realize you’d become a successful developer yourself?
DW: There’s always a defining moment in every career, I suppose. Mine occurred in 1986 when I assembled a partnership to develop English Turn on the Westbank. USF&G Chairman Jack Moseley helped us create the PGA’s New Orleans tour stop, the USF&G Golf Classic. Golf legend Jack Nicklaus, Bob Sierra, and their team pulled the golf course together. Cap Caplinger designed a beautiful land plan for the community.
Ironically, I’d never picked up a golf club until I started working on English Turn.
ULI: Scott, tell us about some other projects your team has been involved with.
SW: Right now, we have a successful master-planned community, The Parks of Plaquemines, on Woodland Highway in Plaquemines Parish and another new one in the same area, Cypress Park, under development for 2018.
Bedico Creek Preserve in Madisonville has been a landmark project for us. It was originally a failed golf community. Our team re-envisioned the initial plan and bought the failed operation. We replaced the course with more than 500 acres of permanent nature preserves, paved walking/hiking trails, parks, lakes and green space. The past three years, we’ve been smashing home sales records on the Northshore. At year-end 2018, we were selling 129% more homes than our nearest competitor! We have more than 400 homes completed or under construction. Bedico is undoubtedly St. Tammany’s most successful real estate turnaround ever.
We’ve had other successful developments post English Turn like The Estates of Northpark in Covington, The Highlands of Santa Maria and Green Trails in Baton Rouge, plus Punta Gorda Harbor in Charlotte County, Florida. The company has done some commercial projects, as well (Chevron, Entergy, Conoco buildings at The Timbers office park on the Westbank).
ULI: Kelly, what do you believe has made Waltemath Interests so strong?
KW: We have generations of experience. Falling back on that is simply priceless.
Dad has a genuine, innate sense of what will sell and what makes a viable project. He always gives buyers the long-term investment potential they’re looking for. He watches the market stats and stays on track fiscally, not over-building or under-building. I’d say he has an amazing talent for staying on budget, while still creating a community where people truly enjoy living. He wants our work to make the entire area a better place than before we built it.
I also think it’s important to note that Dad knows how to build a team. Our projects encompass the cooperation of local Realtors and the construction pros building the homes. A standout community must ultimately be lucrative for everyone involved. He has also assembled a talented team of experienced marketing, communications and online specialists who unfailingly make us look terrific in the media and online.
I believe our projects are special because David Waltemath knows how to build more than just a development. He knows how to build a team.
Rest assured, at Waltemath Interests, there’s a carefully-considered plan behind the magic.
David L. Waltemath has been nominated by City Business in New Orleans as an Honoree for the Excellence in Construction and Real Estate class of 2018. He and his companies Classic Properties and Waltemath Interests will be profiled and honored by City Business for the Development category.
A special Excellence in Construction and Real Estate insert profiling all honorees will run in the September 28 issue of CityBusiness, and an event will be held to celebrate this year’s winners on September 10 from 5-7:30 p.m. at the New Orleans Museum of Art. For ticket information contact Marilyn Miller at 504-293-9201 or [email protected]. Reservations can be made online here. For more information contact Web Editor/Event Coordinator Meghan Keen at 504-293-9253 or [email protected].
Gary Salathe, owner of Alternative Design Build Group, LLC, and Leigh Anne Salathe transformed a mandatory retention pond at Bedico Creek into a nature-lover’s paradise. With a long history of cultivating different plant species both in and out of the different swamps and wetlands around Louisiana, Salathe took his extensive
knowledge of plant life and seasonal growth and created a private wetland oasis next to his house in Bedico Creek.
This amazing pond did not got unnoticed by a particular local group named the Greater New Orleans Iris Society which worked together with Salathe to make him and his pond a part of the 2018 American Iris Society Convention in New Orleans. The annual national convention was held by a combination of two organizations – The American Iris Society and the Society for Louisiana Irises. Visitors came to town April 8th – 14th and many stayed in the city of New Orleans. The convention regularly features several tours of local gardens in the city in which it is held. This year’s list of garden tours included Gary and Leigh Anne’s “A Louisiana Pond” on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain in Madisonville, Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, Independence Botanical Gardens in Baton Rouge, and Sydney and Walda Besthoff 
Sculpture Garden, which is located at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
The history of the Iris Society is equally as important as its events because irises have actually seen a decline in growth in their native locations throughout the United States. In Louisiana, especially, irises could mainly be found only in the wild in swamps or wetlands outside of city limits. However, with the help of professional and weekend gardeners, the return of the growth of irises within city limits in professional landscaping and public gardens has seen a rise in natural annual growth once again.
Gary and Leigh Anne Salathe’s “A Louisiana Pond” was honored to be a part of such esteemed company for the garden tours and enjoyed approximately 230 guests to its location on the day of the event. Not to be outdone, right before the event, 3 families of mallard ducks showed up at the pond to be a part of the big day as well!
Reacting to recent interest rate announcements the real estate market is bracing itself for changes stemming from a return to pre-recession economy.
As this affects the real estate market, potentially slowing it, experts are seeing buyers — particularly millennials, who are expected to account for more than 40 percent of sales this year — take a more holistic approach to home values when choosing to buy.
Larger community developments, in particular, stand to factor high in many buyers’ lists.
Developer David Waltemath said gradual rate hikes favor communities that offer amenities such as green spaces and community swimming pools.
Waltemath is the owner of Classic Properties, whose projects include a Good Growth Award-winner with the Santa Maria Golf Community near Baton Rouge in 2003, English Turn in Algiers, The Parks of Plaquemines in Belle Chasse, and more recently, 1,000 acres in Madisonville — Bedico Creek Preserve. “In 2017, Bedico Creek sold more than 90 homes ranging in price from the mid $250,000s to more than $1 million,” reports Waltemath, “ranking it at the top of St. Tammany home sales.”
Though implementation varies, master-planned communities typically involve larger tracts of land. The advantage for buyers is they get more than just a home on a typical sized lot.
Waltemath notes that Classic Properties doesn’t build homes, but rather develops the areas and subdivides it into lots, which are then sold to builders and future homeowners.
“We’re selling these lots for the same price as a developer down the street, who does not have the luxury that we have at Bedico Creek,” Waltemath said. “Home buyers are essentially getting (the amenities) for free.”
The Bedico Creek “luxury” Waltemath refers to includes two community pools with pavilions, a Rod & Paddle Club, playground, an engineered system of paved walking/biking trails, non-motorized boating/fishing, and more than 500 acres of greenspace, parks, lakes and nature preserves with rustic trails winding throughout.
Additionally, 200 acres at Bedico Creek that are technically open to lot development have been saved for future community upgrades. Waltemath said the available space allows the homeowners to continue to build value long after the roughly 900 lots are completed. As an example, he said, the current nine-hole disc golf course could be expanded to 18-holes if the Homeowners Association choses.
Another trend Waltemath said he and others are seeing is that new home buyers are securing lots long before they build. Buying the lot first allows buyers who might have less buying power to secure the ideal location first, and build their home later.
“Lots of people will buy a lot and say, ‘We wanted to buy now, because this lot won’t be here in three years,” Waltemath said. “That’s a great concept for young buyers or those planning retirement options.”
This trend is likely a response to a rising trend of home buyers staying in place. For the past decade, a limited supply of new construction has fueled sales of existing homes. But experts forecast a bullish year of new construction, which will mark a slowdown in the market for existing homes.
Though many buyers are rushing to secure low interest rates, Waltemath said there likely won’t be any sales disruption from the expected rising rates, as long as the increase is steady. Any market anxiety, he said, can be attributed to a generation of new buyers who see three and four percent interest rates as the norm, noting that few, if any, analysts see interest rates spiking to what they were before the recession.
“Interest rates will have an impact, of course, but most older people would say normal interest rates are between six and seven percent,” Waltemath said. “I don’t see anything that will cause the real estate market to freeze — there’s still a big demand out there.”
Solar panels, a Spanish-style roof and a community fitness center?
Demands for new homes are changing in unique ways. Multifamily Executive – the industry magazine for larger-scale real estate developers – noted only last year that “if … you don’t have a pool or fitness center, it’s doubtful you’re going to compete.”
Louisiana developer David Waltemath certainly seems to understand that concept.
“We’re adding our second pool complex,” he said. “It’s pretty rare that anybody has more than one.”
Waltemath is the developer behind several southern Louisiana communities, including the massive Bedico Creek Preserve development in Madisonville. Encompassing 1,000 acres, the Bedico Creek Preserve project will complete with slightly less than 950 homes.
The new pool complex, due to be completed this year, is just the most recent of an amenities package at Bedico Creek. Residents can also make use of fishing piers, hiking trails, playgrounds and even a 9-hole disc golf course. “It’s an amenities package that, according to Waltemath, has propelled Bedico Creek to one of the top selling developments in St. Tammany Parish.”
“In St. Tammany Parish, there’s not a development that’s selling more,” Waltemath said.
In the past, buyers have sought value in the amount of physical house they could get for the money – large lawns, numerous rooms and big spaces, for example. But now, buyers seem to be increasingly willing to forego personal features for access to shared amenities. Millennials and baby boomers likely will find this new breed of development to their liking. Many mature buyers want to minimize their maintenance, without sacrificing activities. Meanwhile, millennials will relish increased opportunities for walkable developments that cultivate a sense of community.
Bedico Creek was a rare opportunity for Waltemath. The original plan for the land was for a golf community, but as those original plans faltered with the previous developer, Waltemath reimagined the space for a new kind of buyer. The Madisonville development now features 12 different neighborhoods, but also includes roughly 600 acres specifically set aside for green space, lakes and nature preserves.
“Parks and trails are the number one sought-after amenity in the country,” Waltemath said. “We’re fortunate to have a huge amenity package–and it’s showing in the absorption rate (the number of months it takes a currently listed home to sell).”
In southern Louisiana, land comes at a premium. The swampy nature of the region can make it challenging to find 
solid ground for new development. Despite this, Waltemath notes, people are not moving back into “the city” as much as the trends may indicate. Groups such as the Urban Land Institute – of which Waltemath has long been a member – touts the revitalization of downtowns in New Orleans and across the country. Waltemath said this excitement has created the myth that people don’t want to live in suburbs.
“Downtown living … is a lot more alive than it has ever been in the past,” he said. “But the vast majority of people like to live in the suburbs with a yard and a fence.”
To this end, developers are doing their part to redefine the concept of a suburb. The latest developments go beyond homebuilding, and instead use amenities to foster a sense of community. Developments are using their resources to build neighborhoods, not just homes. In Bedico Creek, for example, an activities director arranges group functions, including mini-parades, crawfish boils and more.
And when these developments are located within areas that boast good schools and close proximity to New Orleans, even city-minded buyers may take a second look.
