In 2020, Mahlon “Sandy” Apgar, a ULI trustee and Julia Morgan Society member, provided an endowment to the ULI Foundation to create the ULI Apgar Thought Leader Award. The award program encourages the sharing of original research and innovative ideas related to the real estate industry. Every two years, a committee chooses a winning article published in Urban Landmagazine and written by a thought leader, awarding a $1,500 honorarium and free registration for the Institute’s Fall or Spring Meeting.

Value-added real estate investment will be the engine of returns as the macro environment remains unpredictable and debt providers exert caution, according to a panel of executives at the ULI’s United Kingdom conference in May.

To open the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto, members of the Institute’s global leadership team gathered for a fireside chat. ULI Global CEO Ron Pressman, global chair-elect Diane Hoskins, and outgoing global chair Peter Ballon, who also serves as the global head of real estate for CPP Investments, discussed the future of ULI and the broader industry over the next two years. Hoskins begins her two-year term as global chair starting in July 2023.

ULI has announced 20 finalists for the 2023 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence, one of the most prestigious awards programs in the real estate industry. This year’s finalists include 19 developments in the United States and one in Canada. Three additional projects from the United States received special mentions.

To ensure the success of the program, ULI has enlisted a group of expert coaches, each with unique skills and backgrounds, to support the cohort of eight participating teams across Asia, Europe and the U.S. These coaches will help ensure that local teams stay focused on ways to integrate art into the fabric of the community and within real estate development. The coaches, all leaders in their respective fields, come from diverse backgrounds in business, arts and culture, real estate consulting, and nonprofit leadership.

A redevelopment plan for a North Charleston, South Carolina, site presented by a team of Harvard University students has taken top honors in the 21st annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The winning plan, titled Knot Charleston, is a vision for the new downtown of North Charleston designed to address challenges posed by the post-COVID environment, social inequality, and climate change.

Around the globe, individuals, organizations, and governments come together each year to celebrate and acknowledge Earth Day. Since its first observance in 1970, Earth Day has served as an annual reminder of the environmental challenges the world faces while inspiring solutions and positive change. The theme of this year’s event is “investing in our planet,” which resonates with the work of ULI and its members to address environmental issues through the Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate.

ULI has announced that Blackstone Real Estate portfolio companies have joined the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance—a global alliance of real estate owners and investors dedicated to enhancing building value by reducing carbon emissions and incorporating sustainability across their portfolios. With this addition, ULI Greenprint’s membership exceeds 120 real estate companies, illustrating continued interest in sustainability from the industry.

Over the last two years, the total value of deals remained largely stable, with approximately $25 billion for about 2,300 transactions in multifamily and $15 billion for about 1,500 transactions in the office sector. However, examining individual cities reveal distinct patterns in behavior.

ULI has earned a 2023 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the third consecutive year. ULI has received the award for its efforts promoting energy-efficient and sustainable buildings and for its thought leadership on net zero and energy conservation throughout the real-estate sector.