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Page 18 — Office Properties Quarterly — March 2020 www.crej.com DISTRICT COUNCIL SPOTLIGHT Diversity, an established best practice in business, is a key goal of the global ULI, historically not a very diverse organization. However, ULI is making strides through such programs as the Real Estate Diversity Initiative (REDI), which has served 300+ women and people of color through hands-on education since 2009. Founded in 2013, the Women’s Leadership Initiative has doubled the number of women ULI members since 2013. One of ULI Colorado’s goals is to create new leadership opportunities both within ULI and the land-use professions it serves. Our newest program is “Breaking the Glass Ceiling,” a mentorship program for mid-career women is open for application through March 31. The program will pair six leaders in the field (men and women) with six mid-career women professionals for four months of mentoring, learning and networking. The program is funded by a seed grant through the ULI Foundation and $5,000 in sponsorship from Shaw Construction. We are pleased to announce the six mentors in this year’s pilot project: • Jesse Adkins, principal, SA+R • Erin Clark, vice president of master site development, Urban Land Conservancy • Amy Kiefer Hansen, shareholder, Polsinelli • Tracy Huggins, executive director, Denver Urban Renewal Authority • Heidi Majerik , vice president and general manager, Southern Land Company • Bruce O’Donnell, principal, Starboard Realty Group For more information and to apply go to Colorado .uli.org. Breaking the G lass C eiling is one of six mentoring/career development programs offered by ULI Colorado. Stay posted for other deadlines: May: Real Estate Diversity Initiative (for women and people of color) June: Development 360 (for young leaders) Summer: Etkin Johnson Student Scholars ( for college and university students in real estate, finance, design, planning, related fields) Fall: Partnership Forum ( for y oung l eaders) Fall: ULI Next ( for mid-career professionals, ages 35-45) Calling all women (and all kinds of people)! ULI Colorado Product Councils are groups of senior ULI leaders who meet twice annually to connect and collaborate across similar areas of the real estate industry. ULI Colorado has four local Product Councils. In addition to general trends and insider project tours, each covers (among many other topics): • • Multifamily: affordable housing, finance, construction defects, policy updates Community Development: l and and entitlements, new product types, master planned communities, mixed-use infill, amenity packages, community programming, public private partnerships, smart cities, and metro districts • Commercial, Office, and Industrial (COIC): Leasing trends, finance, new product types, • Resort Entertainment Tourism and Leisure (RETL): Hospitality, Colorado in global context, ski base development, retail, employee housing, arts/creative districts (meets in such locations as Aspen, Breckenridge, the Broadmoor, Steamboat, Winter Park, etc.) Through the exchange of information and sharing of best practices, Product Council meetings offer industry leaders vital opportunities to further ULI’s mission of providing leadership in responsible land use. ULI Colorado Product Councils are open for application on an ongoing basis at https://colorado.uli.org/ uli-in-action/colorado-product- council/. Applications are reviewed in June and July each year. For more information on joining a local Product Council, please email sarah.franklin@uli. org. Product Councils: Insider info for ULI Leaders Executive Director Continued from page 1 have made the ULI Colorado tent much more inclusive, while spreading ULI expertise to such communities as Canon City, Colorado Springs, Edwards, Loveland, and Pueblo. In other words, we have many new examples of best practices to present. At the same time, Colorado will benefit from the global knowledge coming to town, potentially suggesting new ways to grapple with the key issues identified in our 2020 Strategic Plan. For more information on that, see our chair Mike Zoellner’s column in this issue. We hope you will join us as a host committee volunteer (or participate in one of our 50+ programs and events each year). ULI offers many opportunities for career development, advising communities, peer-to-peer networking, education, and most of all working together toward a better Colorado. So check us out a t Colorado .uli.org. Meanwhile, I hope you will join me in welcoming the world to Colorado in 2021. And please reach out to me and my staff (directors Marianne Eppig and Sarah Franklin and associate Elise Martinez) with any questions about how to get involved with ULI and its mission. Michael Leccese Executive director ULI Colorado WLI Co-Chairs, Cindy Harvey, Principal, Stantec & Sarah Nurmela , Neighborhood Planning and Implementation Manager, City and County of Denver Attend an event Join a committee Become a mentor or mentee Apply to join a CO Product Council Volunteer to advise a CO community Support ULI Colorado More Info? Get Involved with ULI Colorado Ok, you joined ULI. What’s the best way to get value from your membership? In addition to ULI’s national convenings, ULI Colorado hosts 50+ programs a year, from intimate salons and networking events to large conferences for 500+ Meet your peers, plan an event or initiative (see page 2). ULI Colorado hosts seven leadership / mentorship programs for students, Young Leaders, women, minorities, and mid-career professionals. Twice-a-year small-group meetings for industry leaders in retail, multifamily, community development, resorts, hotels, and more. Since 2004, ULI Colorado has organized 60+ Technical Advisory Panels (TAPs) and workshops in Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Central City, Commerce City, Denver, Edwards, Lakewood, Steamboat Springs, Wheat Ridge and more. Put your expertise to work to help communities solve tough land-use issues. Join the 56 Colorado companies who are annual sponsors, or sponsor an event, leadership program, or Technical Advisory Panel. ULI Colorado’s core of 250+ volunteers will leverage your investment by a factor of 5.5. We are supported entirely within Colorado! Contact: colorado@uli.org or 303.893.1760, or visit http://colorado.uli.org . Or attend our New Member Coffee, usually, the first Thursday, every other month, or our Young Leader monthly social, last Thursday of each month. Chair Continued from page 1 them with solid facts to back up important decisions. I have another major initiative during my two-year term as chair. In 2020, I want to bring in a national ULI Advisory Services Panel (ASP) to study the urban portions of the South Platte River, from Adams County in the north to the Denver border in the south. The South Platte has amazing yet unrealized potential to become the non-motorized transportation hub for the entire region. Since the great flood of 1965, the Greenway Foundation, local government and others have brought progress to the riverfront. Projects like River Mile and National Western Stock Show are poised to redevelop major portions of waterfront. What is lacking is a comprehensive vision to tie these all together and to improve the riverine environment and waterfront developments as a whole, not in fragments. ULI’s ASPs have a track record of transforming major sites in Colorado. ULI weighed in on site selection for Coors Field (which could have ended up in the suburbs) and the location of Colorado Convention Center; ULI made recommendations that led to the transformation of the shuttered Fitzsimons Army Medical Base into a world-class medical center. We are currently raising support for this week-long ASP process, which will cost $150,000. Organizations such as the Downtown Denver Partnership, Greenway Foundation, and Associated General Contractors (AGC Colorado) have signed on as partners in our working group. If you’d like to get involved, send a note to Colorado@uli.org . Mike Zoellner ULI Colorado Chair ULI Resources For Members Thinking about joining ULI? In addition to participating in our District Council, you may access hundreds of case studies, reports, and webinars available to ULI members only; receive discounts to attend national and global conferences; and more . Go to uli.org/join. "ULI’s Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) process gave that guidance so we weren’t just guessing. We didn’t have to spend hundreds of thousands more on studies to get to a vision. We were able to fast-forward a deep conversation on urban change. After the TAP, we woke up the next day with a clear vision that we had to build a real neighborhood. ” - Chris Parr, Sun Valley Eco District