A $1 million gift from Alex J. Rose, executive vice president for Continental Development Corporation, will help the ULI Foundation establish a $7.5 million endowment to provide long-term funding for its advisory services program, which assembles panels of volunteer ULI members to provide expert advice and recommendations to communities facing land use challenges.
Rose, a ULI Trustee and a member of the ULI Foundation’s Charles Fraser Society and James J. Curtis Society for Planned Giving, has chaired or served on more than 40 advisory services panels over the past 25 years. “I caught the bug in 1997, when I participated on a panel in Grand Forks, North Dakota, advising on a strategy for rebuilding the city’s historic downtown in the aftermath of a 500-year flood,” Rose says. “I was so taken by the work with the people . . . in the community, as well as with our members and our staff, that I’ve never stopped. I don’t think anything else we do is more on point with executing ULI’s mission.”
Kelsey Steffen, vice president of advisory services, says, “ULI has been preparing to reposition the advisory services program, focusing on ULI’s mission and delivering it to communities worldwide.” That includes working on better integration with the District Council network, where most of members engage with ULI.Gifts to the Foundation have been making a significant impact to the advisory services program for years. “Our top clients are often local governments with limited funds,” Steffen says. “While the program doesn’t generate profit, it requires significant resources. This is ULI’s chance to be supportive of cities and communities nationwide, acting as a friend and partner, offering access to our thought leaders and members to help navigate the changing economic landscape.”
“The Foundation is grateful for Alex’s generous contribution and, equally as important, his leadership,” says Faron A. Hill, chair of the ULI Foundation and a Fort Wayne Advisory Services panelist. “Alex is an industry leader who understands the importance of the advisory services program and its rich history as one of ULI’s signature programs. Advisory Services panels have allowed ULI and its members to offer impactful solutions to the challenges facing our cities around the country for more than 75 years.” He points to the recent panel for the Electric Works redevelopment project in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The majority of the panel was funded by the ULI Foundation. The panelists advised the city on how the redevelopment could create jobs, attract investment, and expand the tax base, but also serve as a national model for including underrepresented businesses and communities, as well as advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“This is a great example of how ULI’s members continue to step up to the plate,” Hill says.
Rose says he had two primary objectives in making the gift: “First, I felt it was important that the Foundation build an endowment to financially support communities in need of advisory services and expertise, so that that price alone doesn’t prevent them from receiving the benefits that ULI member experience and expertise are able to bring through the advisory services platforms.
“My second objective was to ensure that our great and impactful work does not stop at the delivery of a report,” Rose says.
His gift, he explains, is intended to provide resources to ULI in general and to District Councils in particular, enabling the program to share content from each engagement across the Institute; secure additional advisory engagements at local, regional, and national levels; create greater member engagement and value; provide the basis for additional foundation and other philanthropic support of ULI’s mission; and expand and further diversify ULI’s membership.
“We can move the advisory services program from focusing on the delivery of a product to enhancing ULI’s execution of its mission and create more value for members,” he adds. “I hope this gift will motivate others to contribute, as well, making the initiative self-supporting and expanding its reach.”
RON NYREN is a freelance architecture and real estate writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.
