Three students from the Baker Program in Real Estate and program director, Dustin Jones, attended the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA two weeks ago. Attending the meeting is part of Jones’s efforts to enhance the program’s visibility by linking it with ULI. As Jones succinctly put it, “We want to be wherever ULI is.” In addition to attending conference sessions and touring Bay Area development sites, the Baker Program also hosted a reception for Cornell alumni in real estate who live in the Bay Area or were there for the conference.
Two 2nd year students, Katherine Scafuri and Julio Duran, attended the conference after receiving fellowships sponsored by Toll Brothers. Jason Spencer was the third 2nd year student to attend the conference as this year’s recipient of ULI’s Stephen Chamberlin Fellowship.
Key topics discussed at the meeting included emerging trends in real estate, arts and entertainment, and creating healthy cities. Katherine Scafuri noted that the ULI conference was an exciting opportunity to learn more about prevailing market trends and hear from industry leaders and innovators. “I especially enjoyed Brian Chesky’s, of Airbnb, interesting perspective on the sharing economy and real estate.”
Overall, the conference was a great experience for those who attended and helped build the Baker Program’s identity as a leading program in graduate real estate studies.
