ULI Advisory Services
In November 2024, ULI’s Advisory Services program partnered with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Buffalo Branch, the Buffalo Urban League, and local civic leaders to support the revitalization of Buffalo’s historic Jefferson Avenue Corridor.
ULI Advisory Services Panels bring together leading experts to help communities navigate their most pressing land use and development challenges. What happens after the recommendations are delivered, though? One year on, we checked back with this community in Fort Worth, Texas, to see how panel insights have turned into action and how ULI’s work is helping to shape meaningful, lasting progress.
Best practices for acquisition and redevelopment
In April, the Urban Land Institute welcomed Vincent Ilustre as the new president of the ULI Foundation, appointing him to lead philanthropic initiatives and strengthen donor engagement. Ilustre was drawn to the role by the strong connection members have with ULI. “There’s a genuine passion for this organization,” he said. “Members don’t just join ULI—they invest in it because it’s helped shape their professional journeys.”
ULI is proud to announce partnerships with seven public agencies in California and Nevada that are working to advance resilience in urban planning and real estate development in their communities. The organizations are partnering with their local ULI District Councils as part of a larger effort aimed at connecting public sector leaders to ULI’s technical assistance, networks, and other resources and helping cities prepare for the impacts of climate change and other environmental vulnerabilities.
A team of ULI experts visited Fort Worth in September 2024 to develop anti-displacement strategies for the city’s historic, majority Hispanic Northside neighborhood, which faces mounting pressure from two nearby megadevelopments, as well as broader metropolitan growth trends that drove up the area’s property values 60 percent from 2016 to 2021.
Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the tragic bombing in downtown Oklahoma City finds the city itself experiencing nothing short of an amazing urban renaissance, after having pivoted from a suburban focus to a vibrant celebration of its central business district.
In 2014, a ULI Advisory Service panel made recommendations about the future use and preservation of Houston’s Astrodome, among the first indoor sports facilities in the world.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is experiencing increased flooding of local streets, even without major rain events or high winds, and residents are demanding answers. While many are calling on the city to elevate certain streets above the floodplain, ULI experts caution this is the least desirable solution because it can have severe negative consequences on nearby homes and businesses.
In early February 2025, hundreds of stakeholders and real estate professionals gathered at DeSales University for a meeting sponsored by ULI Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and supported by ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing and Lehigh County Commissioners. The first installment of a three-part Technical Assistance Panel (TAP), “Housing Supply and Attainability Strategy in the Lehigh Valley” aimed to open the conversation and further shape the technical assistance work to follow.
