WASHINGTON / NEW YORK (March 14, 2024) — The Urban Land Institute (ULI) will host its semiannual meeting of real estate leaders April 9–11 in New York, convening more than 4,500 land use professionals in the financial capital of the world to connect, exchange insights and ideas, and navigate unprecedented challenges facing the industry to turn crisis into opportunity. Attendees will come from around the world and across all segments of land use and real estate, including architecture, development, community outreach, urban planning, and investment.

The 2024 ULI Spring Meeting will feature more than 100 speakers, 40 sessions, and 30 development tours exploring strategies for financing development projects, meeting sustainability goals, factoring climate-risk into investment decisions, strengthening resilience of properties and communities, addressing the nationwide housing shortage, and more. A central focus will be discovering best practices for navigating real estate capital markets amid headwinds in the post-pandemic economy. Key sessions will include:

• Capital Markets Today: In a series on navigating real estate capital markets, capital providers and users–including panelist MaryAnne Gilmartin, CEO of MAG Partners–will share insights and strategies for securing debt and raising equity.
• Fostering Next-Generation Central Business Districts: This session–moderated by Robinhood CEO Rich Buery Jr. and featuring Maria Torres-Springer, New York’s deputy mayor for housing, economic development, and workforce–will explore strategies for developing vibrant, inclusive, healthy central business districts in the post-pandemic era.
• Mixed-Income Housing: A Tool for Creating Inclusive Communities: Panelists and moderator Lisa Gomez, CEO of L+M Partners will provide a deep dive into the benefits and challenges of mixed-income housing, drawing from experiences of NYC developments.
• Using Data Science and AI to Answer the Need for Speed in Uncertain Times: Panelists will discuss how their companies have deployed data science and artificial intelligence to create a competitive advantage.
• NYC 2100: This panel will examine the future of resiliency, housing, and equity in the New York metropolitan area amid climate change that could bring six feet of sea-level rise within the next century.

The meeting will kick off with a fireside chat with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former Secretary of State and Former U.S. Senator from New York. Secretary Clinton will share insights and analysis of recent geopolitical events and how business and community leaders can work together to solve global challenges. Additionally, veteran CNBC analyst Ron Insana will moderate a panel discussion on the latest ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast, a semiannual survey of leading economists and experts on real estate capital markets. The meeting will close with remarks by entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews on how innovation and adaptation are the keys to building a better future.

New York City’s history of adaptability and reinvention after seismic financial, cyclical, and environmental changes make it an apt host at this inflection point in the industry. Experiential tours of development sites will showcase the rapid growth and exciting developments created since the city last hosted a ULI meeting in 2014. Among themes explored will be the renaissance of downtown Brooklyn, housing attainability and placemaking at Hunter’s Point South, and vibrant, innovative new office developments in Midtown. Highlights include:

• Revitalization of the South Bronx: Attendees will experience the revitalization of the South Bronx through affordable housing mechanisms and affordable housing at scale in the Mott Haven district.
• Public and Private Partnerships in Essex Crossing: Once completed, the $1.5 billion project on the Lower East Side will include 1,079 units of residential rental and for-sale housing (of which over 50 percent will be permanently affordable to a wide range of incomes), over 700,000 square feet of commercial space, 350,000 square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of community and cultural facility space, and 100,000 square feet of exterior and interior green space, including a new public park.
• A Post-Industrial Waterfront Reimagined: In the past 20 years, the waterfront in Greenpoint has been transformed into an extension of the neighborhood. When completed, Greenpoint Landing will include about 5,500 apartments (both market-rate and permanently affordable units), a sprawling waterfront park, and numerous local retail opportunities.

“New York sits at the nexus of pressing issues facing the real estate industry: finance and capital markets, downtown revitalization and the future of office, housing supply and attainability, sustainability and climate resilience, and more,” said Clare De Briere, ULI Americas Chair and member of the Global Board of Directors. “I can think of no better location for the Spring Meeting than this dynamic, vibrant, fast-moving city that has prevailed over prior downturns and emerged stronger. ULI members are excited to see many of New York’s real estate success stories up close and gain knowledge and insights that will help them navigate today’s uncertainties and seize future opportunities for innovation and growth.”

“When it comes to adapting, innovating, and seizing opportunity in times of change, there is no city in the world quite like New York,” said ULI New York Executive Director Felix Ciampa. “Our interconnected, dynamic, and multicultural city is leading the way to overcome the present challenges facing the real estate industry and the communities we serve. From unique urban open spaces like Little Island to the adaptive use of Empire Stores and transformative mixed-use developments like Essex Crossing, examples of our industry’s creativity and ingenuity abound in the decade since New York last hosted ULI. We look forward to welcoming ULI members to the Spring Meeting, sharing what we have learned from moments of transformation and reinvention, and showing them firsthand why our incredible city makes us so optimistic about the future.”

For a complete schedule of sessions and tours, please visit spring.uli.org.

Following the Spring Meeting, on Friday, April 12, the ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate will host its fifth annual Resilience Summit. The event will highlight risks posed to properties by climate-related disasters, as well as offer practical solutions for strengthening resilience in the built environment and protecting communities from climate hazards. The New York region’s rebound after Superstorm Sandy will be a key source of best practices and insights to plan for and recover from disasters. To learn more, visit spring.uli.org/resilience-summit.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR PRESS:

Media interested in attending the ULI Spring Meeting in person at the New York Hilton Midtown must register in advance. For more information on registration, please contact Katie Groenke at [email protected]. Please note: general sessions featuring guest speakers will be open to the media, but no audio/video recording will be permitted.

The 2024 Resilience Summit will take place April 12, 2024, from 9am to 4pm ET at the NYU Kimmel Center located at 60 Washington Square South. To attend, please contact ULI at [email protected].

For more information and the complete agenda, please visit spring.uli.org.

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About the Urban Land Institute 

The Urban Land Institute is a non-profit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the institute has more than 48,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines. For more information on ULI, please visit uli.org, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.