Participate in a fast-paced, interactive UrbanPlan Lightning Round with fellow industry professionals to experience one of ULI's key impact programs for introducing the complexities of real estate development and empowering participants to play an active role in shaping better communities through the built environment.

Register here.

Moderne Ventures is a strategic venture capital and growth equity fund that invests in technologies shaping real estate, finance, insurance, and more—industries that represent over 20 percent of U.S. GDP. In this session, Moderne will spotlight companies that are redefining how we build, transact, and live—featuring innovations in artificial intelligence, robotics, energy systems, digital infrastructure, and global payments. These aren't future concepts—they're active solutions driving measurable change across the industry today.

Featuring ULI Terwilliger Center's Home Attainability Index data, we will present the latest findings for Colorado's metro areas: how are the different regions' housing markets performing?; what are the latest homeownership and rental trends?; how deep is the affordability challenge?; and what other interesting findings did the team discover that will impact Colorado's housing and economic outlook?

Have you ever wondered what real estate attorneys do on a day-to-day basis to support real estate development? Real estate attorneys serve as legal advisors and advocates for their clients, helping them navigate the complexities of real estate development and risk management, and helping projects get across the finish line. This session will highlight the key themes in ULI Learning's new course from the attorneys who lead it.

Avivo Village provides transitional homeless housing in a reuse of a 48,600-square-foot distribution building. Low-barrier entry requirements and its downtown location make Avivo accessible to homeless people who may not be accepted elsewhere. To better serve the residents' needs, the team used trauma-informed design and an extensive engagement process. As a result, the interior of the building has open corridors with natural light and individual units, giving its residents a sense of community and safety. Comprehensive support services offer health care and prepare residents for the transition to permanent housing. Community leadership played a crucial role in modernizing zoning regulations and building codes to permit Avivo and protect the safety of the residents.

Whether you are company founder or it is your first day on the job, you have unique friends, family, and acquaintances that enrich your life. This session gives practical and unexpected examples of how these people you already know can also support your career (and how you can find ways to help them). The people you know can inspire you, teach you, and advocate for your career. The secret is being comfortable explaining what you do and being curious and engaged. We'll help you with conversation starters and tactics and encourage you to find your own way to talk about work that's authentic and find your way to projects you care about. We'll also talk about ways to intentionally grow your business networks and some tips and tricks for traditional business development environments such as industry events and conferences. We look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Nevada Avenue runs north-south through the heart of Colorado Springs, Colorado, stretching about 10 miles from Fort Carson in the south to the sprawling campus of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) at its north end. Prior to the construction of Interstate 25 in the 1960s, this roadway was the main route between Colorado Springs and Denver, and for destinations as far away as Mexico and Canada. Today, the corridor continues to serve as an essential connection between downtown and UCCS. It also has the potential to become much more than just a place to travel through; it can become a hub for research, health and wellness, and sports performance tech, as well as a catalyst for a new innovation neighborhood. Join this session to learn more about a recent ULI Advisory Services panel in Colorado Springs that offered recommendations for transforming North Nevada Avenue into a corridor for the future.

With ongoing policy uncertainty and the future of cornerstone programs such as Energy Star in question, real estate sustainability stands at a crossroads. Join Measurabl's CEO and co-founder, Matt Ellis, and president, Maureen Waters, for an executive-level briefing on how new market dynamics—from the rise of sustainable finance to an increasingly complex and uncertain policy and regulatory environment—are working to revise the business case for sustainability. Drawing on investment-grade data from Measurabl Intelligence and case studies from leading real estate owners and lenders, this discussion will unpack the progress and pitfalls in sustainable real estate globally. This is about real data, real results, and real estate's path forward to sustainability, measured. Join this executive conversation to explore the following: What progress is happening and will it be sustained? Why is data quality the new foundation for sustainability success? What happens if Energy Star or other government-backed programs are diminished or defunded? How are real estate organizations positioning operating expenses and cost of capital in their sustainability priorities? How are capital markets—and lenders in particular—quietly reshaping the business case for sustainability?

ULI has selected Rick Reinhard, principal of Niagara Consulting Group, as the recipient of the 2023–2024 ULI Apgar Thought Leader Award, which recognizes the authors of outstanding works written for Urban Land magazine. Reinhard was recognized for his article "Affordable Housing: YIGBY ('Yes in God's Backyard') Movement Seeks to Counter NIMBY Movement," from the Winter 2024 issue of Urban Land. Reinhard acknowledges the barriers to repurposing faith properties for housing, including the emotional ties communities have to their religious institutions, physical constraints of adaptive use, and regulatory obstacles. He provides examples of the successful adoption of the YIGBY movement, along with steps to increase opportunities for religious institutions, housing advocates, and real estate developers.

Join ULI Boston/New England and the Terwilliger Center for Housing to play a new game exploring the tradeoffs of housing development. This game was developed in partnership with Stantec and Play the City, is in pilot phase and will be deployed in community settings- your experience and feedback will help shape the final product! 

 

"Homeward" is an engaging and thought-provoking board game that brings players face-to-face with the challenges of addressing America’s home shortage while building vibrant, sustainable communities. Players form competing teams, each with unique goals and perspectives. Together, they navigate the intricate web of housing production, balancing density, affordability, open space, and environmental impact to create thriving neighborhoods. 

 

Through strategic decision-making and collaboration—or conflict—players must weigh trade-offs as they create homes for their town. Will your team succeed in crafting a balanced, forward-thinking community, or will competing priorities lead to gridlock? "Homeward" invites you to explore the complex interconnectedness of housing and community building in a dynamic, immersive way.

Funding shifts and policy changes at the federal and state levels renew calls to further define the private sector’s role in addressing homelessness. Explore solutions to the U.S. housing and homelessness crisis at the fourth ULI Homeless to Housed (H2H) Symposium, hosted by Joy Horak-Brown (New Hope Housing, Houston, TX). Keynote speaker Jeff Olivet (former director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)) will provide crucial context on the current state of homelessness in the U.S. and invite participants to shape ULI’s forthcoming publication, "10 Principles for Addressing Homelessness: A Guide for Commercial Real Estate and Finance".

ULI Net Zero Imperative (NZI) participants and panelists from past and current cohorts are invited to join an off-site happy hour meetup to network and connect with fellow decarbonization leaders during the conference. Location to be shared in a separate invitation.

Looking for good food and even better conversation? Join NEXT Americas mid-career members for a night on the town. There will be the opportunity to choose from 4 different restaurants and discussion topics.

To ensure intimate conversation, seats are limited and separate registration is required.

Check out the restaurants here.

Click here to register.

Friends of the ULI Creative Placemaking program and members of the ULI Art in Place global cohort will gather for an informal breakfast and meet with local leaders on connecting artists, creatives, and real estate decision-makers. Participants will tour the Maven Hotel and Dairy Block development to learn about the curation of art for those spaces from NINE dot ARTS, a Denver-based art consulting firm. Afterwards, attendees will engage in a discussion to inform a forthcoming ULI report on best practices in developer/artist collaboration. All are welcome, but space is limited. Please email [email protected] to receive an invitation to this event.

This interactive session gives members an opportunity to participate in a real-time mini Advisory Services panel and have instant impact for a local Denver panel sponsor. The session will begin with a brief presentation by the panel sponsor. Members will then be presented with one question pertaining to the land use challenge. With facilitation by ULI Advisory Services program staff, members will briefly deliberate and offer a set of recommendations, recorded in real time, in response to the question. The session will conclude with a brief summary of the recommendations and panel sponsor feedback.

UrbanPlan champion Jessica Durham shares strategies and opportunities for leveraging UrbanPlan workshops for Continuing Education credits with affiliate organizations such as AIA, AICP, NAR, and local legal bar associations.

Join us for Pathways in Progress: Lessons from CRE Trailblazers. This dynamic conversation features multicultural leaders who have carved out meaningful careers in commercial real estate and ULI throughout their professional trajectory. This candid conversation explores the pivotal wins, success takeaways and identity driven insights that shaped their journeys. Geared toward ULI’s Pathways to Inclusion participants, this panel offers real-world advice, inspiration, and actionable strategies for building lasting impact in the real estate industry and the Urban Land Institute.

This session will compare the two commonly used tools for financial modeling: Excel and ARGUS. While Excel offers flexibility, customization, and broad applicability across various financial analyses, ARGUS is specifically designed for real estate financial modeling, providing standardized workflows for valuation, lease analysis, and cash flow projections. The session will explore the strengths, limitations, and best use cases for each to determine which tool is more suitable for different financial modeling needs.

Learn more about the impacts and progress made by the more than 20 global communities who have participated in ULI Net Zero Imperative program to accelerate the decarbonization of their built environment.

The WLI Americas Entrepreneurs Cohort will meet with their Mentors lunch to review their business plans as well as learn valuable leadership skills development from a leading industry expert.

More than 30 percent of the world's energy is consumed by buildings, and windows are the single largest source of energy loss in the built environment. To counter this, LuxWall has developed technologies to manufacture vacuum-insulating glass that performs like a wall. LuxWall Enthermal transparent insulation is five times more insulating than double-paned glass, reduces the energy loss of buildings by up to 45 percent, and improves occupant comfort. Enthermal is ideal for retrofitting buildings as its thin profile allows it to be easily installed in existing window frames, reducing reglazing costs by up to 50 percent for end users. In addition, the payback for most projects is three times faster than other available glass products.

This is an invite-only kickoff event for members of the California-Nevada Technical Assistance Leadership Exchange. Lunch provided.

Explore how mass timber is transforming student housing and campus facilities through smart and sustainable development. This session features insights from a developer with experience delivering mass timber projects across multiple U.S. campuses. Highlights include a public/private partnership at Colorado School of Mines, where four mass timber student housing buildings achieved greater density under height restrictions, as well as projects like a dining hall at the University of Washington and a multiuse student success center at the University of Southern Maine. The discussion will cover design and construction lessons, cost deltas over baseline systems, and how exposed timber supports sustainability goals while creating warm, biophilic spaces that enhance the student experience.

ULI District and National Councils are key drivers of ULI’s impactful programming and host dozens of events focused on sustainability, resilience, health, and social equity each year. The ULI Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate supports Council programming in a variety of ways – with compelling content and reports, speaker suggestions, financial support, cohort programs and more. Join the Lewis Center and other Council leaders to learn about opportunities to advance ULI’s mission and priorities with impactful programming at the local level. A simple lunch will be served. This program is open to all current and potential District and National Council leaders; advanced registration is requested. Please reach out to [email protected] to learn more.

An abandoned art-deco era Coca-Cola bottling plant in Indianapolis has been redeveloped into a thriving 12-acre mixed-use development, re-energizing the edge of the city. The project respects the site's history by restoring existing buildings to maintain their original features, while also embracing innovation by seamlessly integrating new buildings. A food market, boutique hotel, retail, and office space create opportunities for residents and have been a destination for tourists. An internal grid provides a welcoming pedestrian streetscape, connects the project elements, links to the surrounding neighborhood, and anticipates future development phases. Bottleworks District exemplifies opportunities at mid-market levels through thoughtful design and market success.

Lindsey Scannapieco (ULI Philadelphia Transformational Leader Award winner 2023), presents a session on leaning into the attributes of a closed historic school to create a vibrant, community-centered, mixed-use development in Philadelphia. The presentation will share the case study of the Bok Building (ULI America Special Mention 2023), which today is home to over 200 small businesses and attracts 250,000 visitors per year. The presentation will showcase an approach that embraces the existing building condition and finds resiliency in small, diverse tenant types.

This first-of-its-kind facility, the John Parvensky Stout Street Recuperative Care Center and Renaissance Legacy Lofts, provides homeless individuals with supportive services, medical care, and transitional and permanent supportive housing in a holistic space for healing, growth, and community connection. Come learn about the innovative design strategies, unique services, and creative funding sources for this award-winning development.

Ten years ago, ULI released the Building Healthy Places Toolkit—which provides developers, owners, property managers, designers, investors, and others involved in real estate decision-making with strategies to create healthier buildings and communities. Join this session to explore how the field has evolved over the past decade and to learn how to enhance and preserve value by meeting growing demand for health-promoting places.

In November 2023, ULI held its first utility and real estate developer convening with Xcel Energy based in Denver. The discussion was illuminating, finding that it is vital for real estate to source green power from utilities and collaboration is key for opportunities such as grid resilience, battery storage, and partnerships with policymakers, to name a few. Now, over a year later, ULI explores progress and opportunities in this follow-up short session , highlighting the perspectives of both Xcel and Denver-based developers.

Refrigerants can be found in nearly every commercial and industrial building and the vast majority of residential buildings globally. Despite being the fastest-growing greenhouse gas globally, the impact of refrigerants is often underestimated or completely overlooked by building owners. Developers must begin to address refrigerants or run the significant risk of increasing or even accelerating (through the introduction of heat pumps) their impact, while decreasing other scope 1 and 2 emissions, which will likely lead to financial implications such as duplicating capital expenditure spend to achieve critical climate targets. This short session will highlight the importance of addressing refrigerants and a data-driven means of doing so.

This session will share leading research by this year's ULI/Kohn Fellow on the commercial business case for developers and owners to pursue adaptive use for buildings, preserving their historic and cultural value in downtowns while achieving strong sustainability outcomes.

Lindsey Scannapieco (ULI Philadelphia Transformational Leader Award winner 2023) outlines an approach for how to tackle large (100,000 sq. ft.) projects through an iterative development approach. Concepts covered will include outside to inside, building the tenant you want, easy wins, trust building, the value of a big binder, patience, and many twists and turns along the way. Using the Bok Building as a case study, the presentation will walk through a thesis for a step-by-step approach to tackle buildings of scale. Although best applied to adaptive use projects, the steps outlined can apply to any project of scale.

Climate change has established a new normal that threatens communities and challenges the future of our built environments. Climate impacts including droughts and floods significantly affect communities where population growth continues, building tension between heightened risk and real estate demand. This session will feature best practices and case studies for incorporating water-wise and flood-resilient measures into real estate projects, which help mitigate those risks and enhance asset value simultaneously.