For more information, contact:
Robert Krueger at 202-624-7051; e-mail [email protected]

WASHINGTON (September 26, 2011) – The mayors of Kansas City, Oakland, Providence and Tampa, plus 12 additional local land use leaders from these cities, have been selected as the 2011-2012 class of fellows for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use.

The mission of the ULI Rose Center is to encourage and support excellence in land use decision making. By providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources, the Center seeks to foster creative, efficient, practical, and sustainable land use policies.

The flagship program of the ULI Rose Center, the yearlong Daniel Rose Fellowship, provides participants with leadership training and professional development opportunities, and it benefits their respective cities by offering technical assistance on a local land-use challenge. The Rose Fellowship is focused on leadership, integrated problem solving, public-private collaboration, and peer-to-peer learning.

Each of the four mayors is leading a team of three additional fellows, including public- and private-sector representatives, from their respective cities. These first-term mayors were selected based on their interest in land-use issues, diversity of city location and market types, and their potential to position their cities to thrive and be competitive in the years ahead.

“The strength of the nation’s economy is largely based on the strength of its metropolitan areas,” said ULI Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. “We look forward to working with the new class of Rose fellows to help their cities overcome obstacles posed by the current economic environment, and chart a course for success that can be applied to other cities.”

The 2011-2012 ULI Daniel Rose Fellowship teams are as follows:

• Kansas City: Mayor Sylvester “Sly” James, Assistant City Manager for Economic Development Robert L. Langenkamp, Chief of Staff John P. McGurk, and Deputy Director of the Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City Board Chair Bridgette Williams.
• Oakland: Mayor Jean Quan, Community Economic Development Agency Business Development Services Coordinator Aliza Gallo, Community Economic Development Agency Deputy Director Gregory Hunter, and City Administrator Deanna J. Santana.
• Providence: Mayor Angel Taveras, Department of Planning and Development Director Thomas E. Deller, Providence Redevelopment Authority Chair and Markham + DeRentis Associates co-founder James DeRentis, and Director of Government Relations and Senior Counsel Matthew T. Jerzyk.
• Tampa: Mayor Bob Buckhom, Acting Economic Development Administrator and Urban Development Manager Bob McDonaugh, Housing Authority Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Leroy Moore, and City Attorney James H. Shimberg.
  These four cities and four relatively new administrations exemplify the kind of creative leadership that is required for American cities to move into the 21st century economy,” said Jess Zimbabwe, executive director of the ULI Rose Center. “By taking fresh looks at old problems and setting forth bold visions for their long-term value, these mayors have come to national attention, and we look forward to working with them as they grapple with complex land use issues in their cities.”

The ULI Rose Center was created in 2008 with a $5 million endowment by Daniel Rose, chairman of New York City–based Rose Associates, Inc., whose career has involved a broad range of professional, civic, and nonprofit activities. Rose Associates is a leading developer and manager of more than 30 million square feet of major office towers, commercial retail centers, mixed-use complexes, and high-rise residential buildings throughout the East Coast.

According to Rose, the Center is unique in how it facilitates collaboration among leaders in land use by bringing participants together from the public and private sector. “Each has much to learn from the other,” he said. “The more knowledgeable and better trained people are on both sides of the table, the more effective they are. The most successful projects invariably reflect those relationships.”

The current class of Daniel Rose Fellowship teams builds upon two years of fellowship work from eight different U.S. cities. The new class follows the 2010-2011 class, comprised of teams headed by the mayors of Charlotte, Detroit, Houston, and Sacramento. The inaugural 2009-2010 class was led by the mayors of Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia and Phoenix.

“The Daniel Rose Fellowship provided an extraordinary platform for city leadership to work together to address one of the most complex and difficult land use and infrastructure challenges facing our community,” said Charlotte Transportation Director Danny Pleasant, a 2011-2012 fellow. “It greatly accelerated our timeframe for identifying obstacles, thinking through ways to overcome them, and driving toward solutions.”

For more information on the Daniel Rose Fellow program, visit: http://americas.uli.org/rosecenter

About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (uli.org) is a global nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in sustaining and creating thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has nearly 30,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.