Get to Know the Urban Land Institute Philadelphia—Where the Future is Built

by Rachel Hazzard
November 14, 2024

Categories: Partner Spotlight,

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PIDC is proud to have a network of partners working together to ensure Philadelphia continues to attract business investment, development, and job creation by connecting you to resources that can help you reach your goals. One of these partners, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Philadelphia, is making a big impact across our city.

ULI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shaping the future of the built environment across the region, fostering transformative impact in our community, with chapters across the country. Through events, content, education, convening, mentoring, and knowledge sharing, ULI Philadelphia brings together the entire spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines working in private enterprise and public service – including leading property owners, investors, advisors, developers, architects, lawyers, lenders, planners, regulators, contractors, engineers, university personnel and students. Get to know them better through this Q&A below:

Q: Can you provide an overview of ULI Philadelphia’s mission?

A: The mission of the Urban Land Institute is to shape the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. We achieve this throughout the Philadelphia region with a focus on our core commitments to connect members, inspire best practices, and lead in solving complex real estate and land use challenges. ULI is the largest, globally and locally, interdisciplinary association of built environment professionals from developers to investors, designers, and planners to engineers, and from both the public and private sectors.

Q: Tell me the story of ULI Philadelphia’s founding.


A: ULI is one of the oldest professional associations convening real estate and land use practitioners around the world. The organization was founded in 1936, responding to conditions of the built environment during the Great Depression. That spirit of bringing together diverse practitioners to solve complex land use challenges runs through our programming and initiatives today, from providing technical assistance to public agencies and educational and networking opportunities for practitioners. 

Q: How many members does the ULI Philadelphia have? Who are they?

A: ULI Philadelphia has nearly 900 members throughout the region. Many of our members are in or near Philadelphia, but we also have many members in Central PA, the Lehigh Valley, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware that engage in our regional councils. Our members are interdisciplinary professionals in real estate and land use, from early career to senior executives. Our members are planners, architects, developers, public officials, nonprofit professionals and beyond.

Q: How do you engage with your members and stakeholders to ensure your programs meet their needs?

A: Everything we do is with member leadership and support behind it. That looks like a network of 20+ member committees that range from groups organizing around particular asset types, issues, regions, or affinities – like our Young Leaders and Women’s Leadership groups. Every event we host, technical assistance project we take on, UrbanPlan program we deliver is an opportunity for members to advise and engage. Because each of these groups are led by members, for members, it ensures the total body of work is reflective of the needs and interests of our members.

Q: Can you share some key programs or initiatives that ULI Philadelphia is currently working on? 

ULI Philadelphia is likely best known for our high-impact events and convenings bringing together practitioners to share best practices and build strong networks. In addition to those functions, ULI has a robust set of community impact initiatives that include programs like:

UrbanPlan, which provides training opportunities for community leaders, elected officials, and students to better understand real estate fundamentals, and expose outside stakeholders to the tradeoffs made on a daily basis through the land use process.

Technical Assistance Panels leverage the expertise of ULI members who are interested in volunteering their time to address complex real estate issues of public agencies and nonprofit organizations. Recent work included advising emergency shelter providers throughout the city opportunities to reposition those assets for permanent supportive housing.

ULI Learning Cohorts bring together groups of minority and emerging developers through the City of Philadelphia’s Minority Developer Program and Black Squirrel’s Philly Rise Accelerator to connect new real estate leaders to ULI courses and training that inspire best practice.

Q: How do you envision ULI Philadelphia evolving to meet future challenges and opportunities in sustainable land use and real estate?

A: As a member driven organization, with a diverse set of disciplines and perspectives, we are constantly evolving our programs and focus areas to meet the needs of our communities and our industries. All of our programming, content, research, and impact work is born out of a responsiveness to members, meaning we are a constantly evolving organization. Increasingly, sustainability and resilience is a top priority of members, demonstrated by the exponential growth of our now annual Urban Resilience Forum hosted in partnership with peer organizations every fall.

 Q: How can Philadelphia-based organizations (like PIDC) support ULI Philadelphia?

A:  ULI is a big tent organization, with space for anyone involved in the real estate and land use process to engage. PIDC has been a tremendous partner of ULI, serving as a member of our Advisory Board, helping launch a new Industrial Product Council, and partnering to address some of the city’s land use challenges through technical assistance. Any organization interested in engaging with our members and supporting our work in ways like PIDC or other ways, should reach out directly to explore the most meaningful opportunities. 

Q: What can our city’s residents do to support equitable and sustainable land use?

A: Community members are key to shaping the future of their neighborhoods throughout the Philadelphia region. If you are part of a community organization that could benefit from training like UrbanPlan or from convening a technical assistance panel, we invite leaders to reach out to us to learn more.

Q: Anything I didn’t ask that I should have?A: ULI’s largest annual program, the Real Estate Forecast, is just around the corner of November 19, 2024. It is just one way to get more involved with ULI Philadelphia and we hope to see you there!


JOIN ULI Philadelphia!
Help shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in Philadelphia. Learn more about ULI Philadelphia.

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