Renowned panel of land-use, urban experts to visit area from June 7-10

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Members of the media and public are invited to a public virtual presentation of the findings on Thursday, June 10, at 10 AM EDT. Click this link to join: https://uli.zoom.us/j/93431688693?pwd=SFJLVjl5a2lMazRURmJ2RXFnSHlTZz09

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WASHINGTON (June 3, 2021) – A group of renowned urban planning and real estate experts representing the Urban Land Institute (ULI) will be making recommendations next week to the City of Rochester on revitalizing the Bull’s Head Neighborhood to attract retail development and sustain new small and local businesses in the area. ULI is a global, multidisciplinary real estate organization whose work is driven by more than 45,000 members dedicated to shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.

The ULI representatives will be conducting the program for the City of Rochester from June 7-10 through ULI’s Virtual Advisory Services Panel (vASP) offering. The panel is a multi-day, virtual program that is tailored to meet a community’s specific needs, bringing together real estate experts in different areas such as land use, urban renewal and community growth. They will spend time interviewing local stakeholders, understanding the community’s needs and delivering advice on how to best tackle the issue at hand.

Sponsored by the City of Rochester and the Rochester Economic Development Corporation (REDCO), the panelists will provide strategic recommendations on:

• What beneficial commercial goods and services would be best for the area while retaining its core character;
• Best practices for taking on a new identity within the city and region; and
• Creative ways to successfully recruit and sustain new small and local businesses in forthcoming commercial space.

The panel will be led by Paul Bernard, Adjunct Lecturer in the Master of Professional Studies Program in Urban & Regional Planning at Georgetown University. “As we engage in this important work with the City of Rochester, of amplifying value and voice through land use and economic development principles, we lead with the priority of both catalyzing and fully restoring Bull’s Head as a major gateway for opportunity for residents, the Rochester Community and region at large,” said Bernard. “The scope of our efforts includes an independent evaluation of urban planning policy and market dynamics, coupled with a menu of plausible commercial real estate and placemaking solutions.”

Bernard will be joined on the panel by Antoine Bryant, associate, Moody Nolan, Houston, Texas; Ashley Jones, assistant director of commercial development, Invest Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia; Kim Robinson, executive director, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Springfield, Massachusetts; Lawrence (Larry) Cranor, senior project manager, RKG Associates, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts; and William G. (Bill) Lashbrook III, former senior vice president (retired), PNC Bank, Hopewell, New Jersey.

This panel is the first in a series of proposed economic opportunity panels delivered by ULI. These panels will be tasked with thought leadership in underinvested communities—with a specific concentration on African American communities and communities of color—for the purpose of attracting real estate investment in order to achieve more equitable development that improves economic, social, and environmental resilience. The work is supported in large part by the ULI Foundation and its members.

Now in its 74^th year, the ULI Advisory Services program assembles experts in the fields of real estate and land use to participate on panels worldwide, offering recommendations for complex planning and development projects, programs and policies. Panels have developed more than 700 studies for a broad range of land uses, ranging from economic revival to climate change adaptation.

According to Thomas Eitler, senior vice president of ULI’s Advisory Services program, the strength of the program lies in ULI’s unique ability to draw on the substantial knowledge of its 45,000-plus members, including land developers, engineers, public officials, academics, lenders, architects, planners and urban designers. “The independent views of the panelists bring a fresh perspective to the land use challenge,” Eitler said. “The Advisory Services program is all about offering creative, innovative approaches to community building.”

Past sponsors of ULI advisory service panels include federal, state and local government agencies; regional councils of government; chambers of commerce; redevelopment authorities; private developers and property owners; community development corporations; lenders; historic preservation groups; non-profit community groups; environmental organizations and economic development agencies.