Tenant spaces can account for well over 50 percent of total energy consumption in commercial buildings, and with over 1.5M sf of leased space within city limits New York is a prime location to discuss opportunities to better align owner and tenant goals and action to reduce carbon emissions, and to prioritize fit outs that can save energy in ways that retain existing tenants and attract new ones.

An opportunity for active UrbanPlan volunteers to get trained to lead workshops across the network.

Come hear lessons learned from 100+ interviews and data analysis in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle.

Current and upcoming federal infrastructure funding opportunities—including through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act—have the potential to spur resilient, sustainable, and equitable outcomes for cities. Investments in decarbonization by developers can have financial returns in the form of lower operating costs, increased property values, and attracting and retaining tenants. In addition, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating communities that are less reliant on cars can support developer and tenant environmental, social, and governance goals. Learn how and when to leverage these generational funding opportunities to support your projects. Learn more by accessing ULI's curated resources on federal funding at ULI.org/federalfunding.

Cornell University HBCU Real Estate Case Competition hosted by The Real Estate Executive Council (REEC) in partnership with ULI's DEI department.

Coastal cities are critical economic engines of real estate, and yet, these same locals face high exposure to coastal risks. For storms to rising seas, billions of dollars of real estate are at risk. As sea levels continue to rise, real estate must partner in new ways to protect assets and communities. Join this session to explore innovative strategies and processes for advancing coastal resilience.

Nearly one in five U.S. households was multigenerational in 2021—and demand for housing and communities that facilitate multigenerational living is growing. ULI explores these trends in a new publication, Making Multigenerational Communities Happen. In this session, hear what developers, designers, public sector leaders, investors, and others need to know about what it will take to build homes, neighborhoods, and cities that work for people of all ages, and families of all types.

Join host Connie Moore, author Gregg Colburn (Homelessness is a Housing Problem), and New York-based leaders from various sectors, to explore solutions to the housing and homelessness crisis in the U.S. Presented by ULI's Homeless to Housed Initiative and open to all registered meeting attendees.

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)–the largest landlord in North America–invested more than $3 billion to repair damage from the storm and look ahead to protect 200 multi-family buildings from future climate hazards. NYCHA incorporated passive and deployable systems to protect structures and critical infrastructure from flooding and installed generators to provide full back up power. In this session, we'll show how to retrofit 50–80-year-old brick buildings to withstand storm surge, sea level rise, extreme rain, and power outages. We'll also talk to some of the universal operationalization challenges of these resilience strategies that every property owner should keep in mind.

In this session, hear about how UrbanPlan creates a pathway to the real estate industry for young people through its curriculum and ULI member volunteers.

Welcome reception for the WLI Prologis Leaders, Mentors and key WLI and ULI leaders.

Participate in a real-time mini advisory services panel and have instant impact for a local New York sponsor. The session begins with a brief presentation by the sponsor, followed by one question pertaining to their land use challenge. With facilitation by ULI Advisory Services staff, briefly deliberate and offer a set of recommendations in response to the question. The session concludes with a brief summary of the recommendations and sponsor feedback.

Members and staff of the Homeless to Housed (H2H) Local Technical Assistance Cohort 1 gather to share insights and collaborate on their respective projects.

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.

The YLG Connect session is a special event for young leaders (under 35) attending the conference to hear from local rising stars on the various projects they are working on and their impact on the local community. It is also a good opportunity for young leaders to share how ULI has improved their commercial real estate career path and to connect with fellow colleagues. After the panel, young leaders and other attendees will have the opportunities to discuss the challenges most affecting them and the CRE industry during facilitated roundtables.

Members of the ULI Art in Place global cohort and friends of creative placemaking will gather for an informal breakfast and meet with local leaders on connecting artists, creatives, and real estate decision-makers.

This is an off-site event; location information provided to registrants separately via email.

ULI Greenprint real estate members are invited to join an off-site breakfast meetup to network and connect with fellow ESG leaders during the conference. Location to be shared in a separate invitation.

Join ULI Learning and JLL for a 3-hour session to learn more about how the new SEC climate disclosure rule impacts real estate asset developers, owners, and managers.

ENROLL HERE. 

Overview 

In March the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized its long-awaited climate disclosure rule, mandating all publicly-traded companies disclose climate-related risks and related risk management processes, and for many such companies, disclosure of Scope 1 and 2 emissions. With this climate rule, the SEC is shaking up the commercial real estate sector and pulling it firmly into the sustainability world. Join ULI Learning and JLL for a 3-hour session to learn more about how this new rule impacts real estate asset developers, owners, and managers. Discover how leveraging climate-related data can empower businesses to identify actual and potential climate-related risks, mitigate those risks, enact cost saving measures, improve reputation, foster innovation and attract investment. 

Learning Objectives 

1. Understand the fundamentals around the SEC’s required climate disclosures and disclosure timelines.
2. Discover how the mandate impacts the commercial real estate sector, exploring key considerations and potential challenges for stakeholders in this sector.
3. Outline the preparations real estate investors should begin making to facilitate disclosure compliance.
4. Discuss implications of SEC rule on your organization’s climate-related targets and goals.
5. Explore and share ideas in an interactive format on how to successfully comply with this rule and capitalize on business opportunities arising from improved data collection and disclosures in the transition to a low carbon economy. 

Event Details 

This event will not be recorded. In-person attendance is required.

Designing buildings to operate on less energy and carbon is essential to net zero goals, but some design choices—particularly in facades—can increase a building's upfront embodied carbon. This session explores the design decisions and tradeoffs real estate professionals should know to create buildings that are low carbon from construction to end of life, based on research from ULI Greenprint, architecture firm KPF, and the University of Washington's Integrated Design Lab.

The “Emerging Leaders Product Council Program,” by application, is a program that offers a one-time opportunity for emerging member leaders (members under 35) who have sufficient professional experience and are active in the District Council Network to guest on a Product Council at the ULI Spring Meeting, to join the council day and council dinner. This Meet & Greet will bring together this year’s selectees for an informal meeting before kicking off their experience.

Uncover a hidden weapon in the fight against homelessness: Title V. This 30-year policy tool states that surplus federal buildings and property must be evaluated and made available to nonprofit organizations and state and local governments to serve unhoused people. But making deals work under Title V is no easy task. Join the discussion with advocates and government leaders working to cut the red tape to unleash the potential to create much-needed housing and support. Presented by ULI's Homeless to Housed Initiative.

Explore how ChatGPT can enhance the process of building real estate pro formas. Discover how to use artifical intelligence (AI) for learning about pro forma components, and how AI can provide quick insights, suggest Excel formulas, and guide the structuring of financial models. The session emphasizes the role of AI as a supplementary tool for effective and iterative prompt engineering, while underscoring the importance of human expertise in final decision-making.

Decarbonizing Heating in Tall Buildings, Cold ClimatTall buildings in cold climates are critical to city and state climate actions goals. Strategic Decarbonization is a phased approach to reducing, and ideally, eliminating, carbon emissions from tall buildings in cold climates. The Initiative outlines methods as well as dynamic case studies to make decarbonization goals eminently achievable and financially viable.

Research shows that integrating artistic elements into real estate has a significant positive return on investment. In addition to adding value to properties, prioritizing art and culture can create unique, memorable experiences for tenants, visitors, and communities, strengthening social trust and fostering connection. Recognizing this potential, ULI Trustee Michael Spies funded ULI's Art in Place program -- a global cohort of ULI national and district councils to explore how better integrating artistic considerations into real estate development can lead to more inclusive and participatory outcomes. In this conversation led by Juanita Hardy, Spies will share his thoughts on why art matters for real estate and his motivations for championing this focus at ULI.

The country's largest tenant is updating their leasing requirements to achieve net zero over the next few years as required by Executive Order 14057. This December 2021 Executive Order on Federal Sustainability requires the Government to sign leases in net zero emissions buildings beginning in October 2030. In pursuit of this requirement, GSA is contemplating incremental steps to achieve net zero as part of its lease procurements prior to the 2030 deadline. The US General Services Administration has pursued ENERGY STAR and LEED for leased spaces since the mid-2000's. While this moved the Government toward a greener portfolio, this net zero requirement has the potential to make a similar impact. Join this short session to hear from GSA on their potential plans and what this means when submitting a proposal for a GSA lease, and from a landlord who has GSA as a tenant.

In NYC, vacant land is hard to come by. A growing population compounded by international migration has put New York at an inflection point: create more housing or exacerbate the homelessness crisis. Researchers at The Parsons School of Design are discovering the potential of locating modular micro-apartments, integrated with supportive services, on sites encumbered by years of predesign and entitlement processes. Based on preconstruction land leases, this model aims to bridge a critical gap in the "Continuum of Care" while optimizing development costs and unleashing the potential underutilized land for interim community benefit. Presented by ULI's Homeless to Housed Initiative.

Mass timber construction has emerged as a revolutionary force for constructing eco-friendly, resilient, and aesthetically captivating buildings. As part of the City's decarbonization efforts, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) launched the NYC Mass Timber Studio, a technical assistance program to support mass timber development projects in the early phases of project planning and design. Expanding the use of mass timber is a critical component to achieving the City's carbon reduction targets. Hear from leaders at NYCEDC about how this program is helping to advance innovative applications of mass timber across a variety of product types. Whether you're a designer seeking inspiration, a developer exploring sustainable building solutions, or a policymaker helping shape the future of urban planning, this session promises to inspire and inform. Join us as we journey through the cutting-edge of mass timber construction, where creativity, sustainability, and technical advancements converge to build a brighter, greener future for generations to come.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is now a mature concept in city building, having been applied in many cities around the world for well over two decades. In this discussion, Helene Chartier, director of urban planning and design at C40, Eleanor Esser Gorski, CEO and president of the Chicago Architecture Centre, former A/ commissioner of the City of Chicago, and Sander Mozo, planner at the City of Vancouver, reflect on the successes and shortcomings of the concept over the past decades. They discuss how the 15-minute city concept can help shape TOD for the better, areas where the two concepts may be at odds, and share their experiences in developing new models for TOD with a greater emphasis on connections to existing neighborhoods and community building.

Keep the conversation going on TOD and 15-minute cities! In this discussion, Helene Chartier, director of urban planning and design at C40, Eleanor Esser Gorski, CEO and president of the Chicago Architecture Centre, former A/ commissioner of the City of Chicago, and Sander Mozo, planner at the City of Vancouver, continue to discuss the successes and shortcomings of the concept over the past decades. They discuss how the 15-minute city concept can help shape TOD for the better, areas where the two concepts may be at odds, and share their experiences in developing new models for TOD with a greater emphasis on connections to existing neighborhoods and community building.

Join ULI Learning instructor Dr. Charles Tu as he provides an overview of the fundamental principles behind waterfall structures in real estate pro formas and introduces basic techniques for modeling waterfall using Excel.

The NYC Greenways Coalition is a collective of more than 45 greenway-aligned groups focused on advocating for planning and implementation of a 400-mile citywide greenway network. In December 2022, Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI), which created and convenes the coalition, engaged ULI to provide recommendations for embedding equity in the coalition's cross-sector partnership models to ensure more communities benefit from greenway investment and planning resources. Join this short session to hear about how BGI is establishing and building alignment around an equity-focused vision to advance greenway access throughout New York City's boroughs.

ULI's Terwilliger Center for Housing partnered with RCLCO to create the 2024 Home Attainability Index. The Index is a data-rich resource for understanding the extent to which a housing market is providing a range of choices attainable to the regional workforce. In this session, Adam Ducker, CEO of RCLCO, demonstrates the main components of the tool and how to use it. Learn about the data included in the Index and how it can help local stakeholders understand what types of housing are needed, at what price points, and who exactly is priced out.

Our inability to take strong action on climate change and environmental degradation has resulted in exponentially increasing property insurance rates, which have rendered parts of the country effectively uninsurable. We will discuss alternative risk transfer mechanisms – such as catastrophe bonds – for property owners in at-risk areas.

Twenty-eight percent of global carbon emissions originate from building operations, according to research by the World Green Building Council. Of that 28 percent, 15 percent come exclusively from heating and cooling buildings. These sizable emissions present an opportunity for investors, owners, and developers of new construction and retrofits to leverage energy efficient innovations such as heat pumps to meet consumer needs in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Heat pump technology is becoming an increasingly scalable solution toward fully electrifying commercial real estate. In addition to their environmental benefits, heat pumps offer enhanced occupant comfort and tenant energy bill savings. This session touches on heat pump technology and debunks common myths, such as heat pumps can only heat spaces (they can cool them, too!), heat pumps are not cost effective (they are comparable options to what is available on the market!), heat pumps are not viable in cold climates (they perform well in all climates!), and more.