While no one is sad to see 2020 depart, we still have much to celebrate this year. Thanks to your support and help, the work of ULI has endured and even become more important as we envision a better future for healthy urban living and equitable outcomes from the practices of land use. After valid concerns about the economy, some members report they have stayed busy and even hired additional staff.

This is not to minimize the struggles of many of our members and communities, especially those in the retail, office, hospitality, transportation, and government sectors. Many also faced getting Covid or caring for loved one or colleagues with the virus.

But we admire your resilience. ULI Colorado is here to support your work and careers as best as possible. Thanks to a strong annual sponsorship campaign and 57 annual sponsors, we transitioned all 50+ of our annual programs to virtual formats with success.

Some highlights:

Emerging Trends in Real Estate. While Covid threw a kink into the 2020 report findings, our January breakfast program was our largest and most successful ever. Thank you to our sponsors Newmark and Bank of Oklahoma Financial and to ace moderator Kevin McCabe. This past summer, ULI Colorado expanded its influence on the global report by adding a second focus group consisting of our Young Leader steering committee. The 2021 report includes consideration of ULI’s expanded focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. You can register here for our annual program coming on January 14.

Metro Districts: Wild West or Promised Land? Our last large live event before the shutdown held the sold-out Denver Art Museum auditorium for a stimulating look at this controversial topic. Thank you to a a great panel moderated by Bruce O’Donnell. Slides from the event are available here.

Covid response: After mid-March ULI and ULI Colorado launched a virtual program series free to members. Topics included the future of office and density; leasing trends, equity in parks and open space, career tips for the downturn and more, with guest speakers zoomed in from around the world. Interest was high with attendance up to 275 Zoom participants. Many more experienced these sessions via archived recordings, which can be found on KnowledgeFinder. Slides and recordings from the events are available on our Resources page.

Virtual tours: Those missing a hands-on experience could dial into one of our half-dozen virtual tours. The largest was a preview of the new Olympic and Paralympic Museum, the pride of Colorado Springs. This tour was later viewed as a recording by 1,029, the largest audience for any single ULI event globally. Thank you to the Associated General Contractors, Brinkmann, GE Johnson, Patrinely, Saunders Development, Gensler, Swinerton, USAA Real Estate and more for making these tours happen!

Like schools and universities, ULI Colorado’s learning programs went virtual with solid success. Thank you to Brian Levitt of NAVA  for guiding 25 Young Leaders through the process of creating Lakehouse condos in the Development 360 program.

To benefit another 60 Young Leaders, Partnership Forum moderators Chris Achenbach, Austin Kane, Paul Washington and Becky Zimmermann transitioned their gatherings from live to virtual smoothly. The Etkin Johnson Student Scholar program benefited 50+ students from CU Boulder, CU Denver and DU and is being copied in other District Councils.

Our Real Estate Diversity Initiative trained and mentored another 30 women and people of color in real estate development in its 11^th year thanks in large part to our sponsors Housing Colorado, Opus, ProLogis and United Properties and to our many mentors and volunteers.

With outstanding support from Etkin Johnson Real Estate Partners, the Etkin Johnson Student Scholar program continued strong with 25 participants in the 2019-20 academic year. They came from CU Boulder, CU Denver and DU programs in architecture, planning, finance and real estate. When the Covid era cancelled summer programs and internships, ULI Colorado extended the program through summer, when we welcomed the 2020-21 class of scholars.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: The tragic death of George Floyd amplified lingering structural racism throughout society and particularly in the practices of land use. In response, ULI made Diversity, Equity and Inclusion a top priority. Over the summer, ULI Colorado convened three focus groups including leading people of color in real estate and graduates of the Real Estate Diversity Initiative (REDI) to produce our DEI Action Plan, which includes many action steps for increasing DEI throughout our activities and network.

Sponsored by Polsinelli, our holiday program on Equitable Development sold out while featuring our most diverse panel ever. Much remains to be done in this vital area. We are grateful for the leadership of our DEI Chair, Mark Marshall of Urban Land Conservancy.

WLI: The increasing gender diversity of ULI continues to lead the way for these efforts. These year we welcomed Liz Rapp and Sarah Nurmela as WLI co-chairs. Guest speakers included Christine Benaro of Mile High United Way, Andrea Fulton of Denver Art Museum, Dr. Barbara Jackson of DU’s Burns School, and Nancy Tuor who previously worked with CH2M Hill.

With sponsorship from Shaw Construction, WLI launched our newest mentoring program, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling,” for mid- to senior-level career women in real estate looking to break through to executive levels. (Mid-career women can apply by January 15.) Thank you to mentors: Jesse Adkins, Eric Clark, Amy Hansen, Tracy Huggins, Heidi Majerik, and Bruce O’Donnell.

Regional programs: Our Boulder, Northern Colorado, and Southern Colorado Committees offered strong programs on ending homelessness, affordable housing, community benefits agreements, and historic preservation (in Canon City and Trinidad, geographic firsts for ULI). Thank you for to chairs Dave Bacon, Sam Garry, Jake Hallauer, James McMurray, Melissa McGinley, and Jariah Walker.

Spring Meeting 2021: In December, ULI announced that Spring Meeting in Denver (May 10-12) will need to be virtual. However, our local host committee chaired by Chris Frampton, Sarah Rockwell and Paul Washington, has already planned a great roster of programs and tours, some of which may yet be hosted in person. Virtual Fall Meeting in October attracted 5,500 registrants. We plan for similar success to put the best of Colorado forward.

Advisory Panels:  In August, ULI Colorado hosted its first virtual Technical Advisory Panel at Longmont’s historic and abandoned Great Western Sugar Mill. The TAP produced an amazing vision for a food and agricultural hub highlighting the area’s history. Thank you to our TAPs panel chaired by Jocelyn Hittle, and to Tony Chacon of City of Longmont and Brad Calvert of DRCOG for supporting this workshop.

Finally, welcome! One of the most respected names in Colorado real estate, Ferd Belz of Fulenwider joined our leadership team as vice chair. On July 1, 2021, he will succeed Mike Zoellner of ZF Capital as chair—a tough act to follow as Mike’s leadership and devotion has been amazing. We said goodbye to Jack Tiebout and Elise Martinez of our staff and welcomed Ylana Padgett as our new senior associate.

Thank you all again, and happy holidays from the ULI Colorado team!