Join a walking tour of spaces significant to the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 and the LGBTQ+ movement Stonewall inspired. This tour will visit the historic Stonewall Inn, Washington Square Park, AIDS Memorial, Gay Liberation Monument, Oscar Wilde Bookshop, Gay Street, and the start of the First Pride March.

Join the ULI WLI Americas for its signature program where Kelly Nagel, past WLI Americas Chair and Head of Residential at Edens, will moderate a fireside chat with Nancy Lashine, Founder and Managing Partner of Park Madison Partners, a boutique real asset private equity placement firm. They will discuss Nancy's path to success and the challenges she has navigated along the way as a woman entrepreneur. The conversation will also include relevant topics that advance efforts and leverage allyship to close the gender gap in commercial real estate, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship, capital markets and real estate investment.

In 1968, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation purchased the derelict Sheffield Farms Milk Bottling Plant on Fulton Street in the heart of Bed-Stuy, then home to the nation’s largest African American community. Through a rehabilitation completed in 1972, the site became Restoration Plaza, a 300,000-square-foot commercial plaza that is home to Restoration’s headquarters, the historic Billie Holiday Theatre (BHT), the Skylight Gallery, and scores of local businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies, including a post office; local branches of JP Morgan Chase, Carver Federal Savings Bank, and Citibank; Super Foodtown; a school; and stores. Each year, hundreds of thousands of residents pass through the plaza, known as the unofficial town hall of Brooklyn, whether on their way to visit Restoration’s Center for Personal Financial Health, view a play at the BHT, or attend a community event hosted in the amphitheater.

At its inception, Restoration Plaza was a landmark example of community development and adaptive reuse. Now, more than 50 years later, Restoration is once again advancing a bold new vision: reimaging the plaza as the Restoration Innovation Campus. The new campus will be a dramatically expanded, modern, multipurpose site that enables Restoration to meet the needs of the community today. It will include new public space, an expanded cultural center, and two commercial buildings for partners committed to disrupting the racial wealth gap.

 

The plaza stands as a testament to the history and vibrancy of Central Brooklyn. This tour will showcase Restoration’s impact on the community, serving as a landlord, developer, service provider, cultural center, and community anchor for over five decades. It will also point to how the existing space is set to be reinvented for a new era.

Start by riding through Central Park, exiting at 110th Street/Central Park North. Ride past the Lincoln Correctional Facility site (RFP in process) up Frederick Douglas Boulevard through an area of high gentrification, including the Harlem Tavern. Go east past famous jazz club Minton’s up to 125th Street. Ride down Harlem’s “Main Street,” 125th Street, to see the iconic Apollo Theater and new developments at the Victory Theater. See the influx of national retailers along 125th and hear about the evolution of the area from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. Continue north to Strivers’ Row and the Abyssinian Baptist Church. End the ride at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and a visit to its gift shop.