ULI’s real estate education programs tailored to students, public officials, and industry entrepreneurs are being reinforced with a gift of more than $200,000 to the ULI Foundation from ULI Trustee and former ULI Global Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. Phillips’s contribution provides $150,000 for UrbanPlan, ULI’s popular urban development curriculum offered to high school and university students as well as public officials to raise awareness about the impact of development on the long-term future of communities, with the remainder of Phillips’s gift supporting ULI’s Real Estate Entrepreneur Program.
Since its inception in 2003, UrbanPlan has reached more than 49,000 students across North America, and it is rapidly expanding in Europe and Asia. The course provides students with realistic experiences involving the land use challenges, private and public sector roles, complex trade-offs, and fundamental economics involved with development proposals and land-use decisions. More than 1,600 ULI members participated during the 2017-2018 academic year, informing the program with their expertise and working with the students.
Phillips’s gift will build on the scope and impact of UrbanPlan by expanding it to students from low-income communities and to citizen leaders grappling with the issue of navigating changes to the built environment in their communities. “I’m very pleased to help broaden the reach of UrbanPlan,” Phillips said. “This program is a powerful, effective way to educate a variety of stakeholders about what goes into land use decision-making. Expanding it can help achieve more participation in community building from a broader representation of residents.”
ULI’s Real Estate Entrepreneur Program, which began in 2012, teams up longtime industry professionals and young entrepreneurs to offer expertise on business building for small-scale developers. Onsite courses reach 160 to 250 professionals each year. The gift will support an expansion of the program with a variety of online courses including “Understanding the Basics of Building Small,” “Moving into the Role of Developer,” “Attracting Capital to Your Small-Scale Project,” and “Strategic Planning and Implementation for the Small-Scale Developer.”
“The Real Estate Entrepreneur Program is a wonderful example of member-to-member knowledge sharing,” Phillips noted. “Delivering this content in an online format will make it available to a much broader group of current and future small-scale entrepreneurs.”
ULI Global Chief Executive Officer W. Edward Walter pointed out that the expansion of UrbanPlan and the Real Estate Entrepreneur Program reflects the goals of ULI’s Global Strategic Plan, which seeks to strengthen member engagement and impact. “We are delighted with Patrick’s gift for these key mission-focused programs,” Walter said. “His generosity will help significantly with our efforts to share our members’ knowledge more broadly throughout the organization and highlight member expertise as ULI’s content. We are grateful for the opportunity to increase the impact of these programs, both in terms of the members who participate and the communities that ultimately benefit.”
