We are proud to announce a $1 million donation from long-time ULI leader and trailblazer in multi-family and residential real estate, James D. Klingbeil, through the Klingbeil Family Foundation. The gift will support ULI’s Advisory Services program, which has provided holistic and tailored land use solutions and best practices to cities and communities for the past 75 years. Through its multi-disciplinary approach and by bringing together the best minds in the real estate industry, ULI’s Advisory Services program has offered technical insights on vital efforts such as downtown revitalization, affordable housing solutions, economic growth in industrial towns, and the development of parks and natural spaces. This donation is especially timely as the foundation aims to secure a legacy of $7.5 million in endowments, ensuring communities can access land use best practices in a way that benefits them for generations to come.

“Jim Klingbeil has long been a leader among ULI members in his commitment to making a difference in communities,” said Mary Beth Corrigan, co-interim managing director of ULI. “Both through his past service to ULI, and now through this generous gift that will help expand the reach and impact of the Advisory Services program for many years to come, Jim sets an inspiring example of how our members give their time, expertise, and resources to champion the ULI mission.”

The gift was first announced at a ULI event in Oklahoma City ahead of next year’s 30th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Klingbeil was the chair of an Advisory Services panel in December of 1995 tasked with offering Oklahoma City hope, and a roadmap to downtown revitalization after the devastating bombing. Since that panel in 1995, Oklahoma City has seen significant growth in its downtown, including the development of over 5,000 housing units and significant real estate investment from both the private and public sectors. The Advisory Services panel report is still regarded as the comprehensive vision that the city has followed and attributed to its significant growth over the last two decades. To read the full 1995 report, click here.

“Over decades of community engagement through ULI, I have discovered that the exchange of ideas and search for solutions that ULI’s Advisory Services panels entail are next to none,” Klingbeil said. “The experience during and results of the panels often have a lasting impact beyond the communities they study – including on the panelists themselves who generously donate their time and expertise. And it is the many real estate practitioners I’ve met over the years that credit ULI with making them successful and landing them on the leading edge.”

Klingbeil is founder and CEO emeritus of Klingbeil Capital Management, a multi-faceted national real estate company based in San Francisco. He previously served as Chair of ULI and ULI Foundation Chair, and currently is ULI Foundation Chair Emeritus. In 2021, the Klingbeil Family Foundation contributed $7 million to help establish the unrestricted ULI Chair’s Fund

“That’s what ULI is about, trying to make the built environment a better place across all sectors and fields of real estate and land use,” Klingbeil continued. “Without the members who lend their time, skills, and seasoned perspective to Advisory Services panels, there is no ULI – that, to me, is the ULI mission.”

Klingbeil is one of the original 17 donors, known as Governors, to establish the ULI Foundation in 1970 and has given over $11 million to the ULIF over his lifetime.

The Advisory Services program at ULI has a legacy of more than 75 years of impact involving over 2,000 ULI members and providing technical assistance and insight to communities around the country and across the globe like San Francisco, St. Louis, and others.