ULI Fall Confernce Roundup: San Francisco in Pictures
Some 6,000 attendees, star-studded keynotes and countless parties, deal meetings and dinner reservations later, we've got some of the best highlights from this year's ULI fall conference in the City by the Bay.
On Monday night, 500 real estate execs jam-packed the Jewish Contemporary Museum for the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative’s reception. Here's president of 42nd Street Development Corp and WLI chair Wendy Rowden kicking off the hot ticket event, where attendees toured the Amy Winehouse tribute exhibit inside.
We sat down at the St. Regis Tuesday with Columbia Property Trust CEO Nelson Mills, who told us about some of the REIT's big plans (look to the immediate left of his head and you'll see former S.F. Mayor Willie Brown at the packed bar).
One of the biggest themes this year is how the two are intertwined more than ever. The conference had local CEOs like Airbnb's Brian Chesky, who says his service allows cities to both shrink and swell.
At his Tuesday keynote, Gov. Jerry Brown noted how he's a firm believer in increasing the ability of people to live closer to where they work and creating high-density neighborhoods.
The conference draws pros from coast to coast, making for some great business card swapping and dealmaking. Here's Transwestern of Americas president Chip Clarke with S.F.-based colleague SVP David Ford and Al Diaz, head of Americas real estate asset management at Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management out of Chicago. They partied at Transwestern's party at Dirty Habit Tuesday night before eating at one of S.F.'s hottest restaurants, Cotogna.
Big brokerages in town took the time—and money—to host swanky fetes to impress clients, most having an invite-only list. Here was Eastdil's party on Tuesday night, which took place at City View at Metreon from 9pm until midnight. JLL's big party was at the Vegas-style nightclub The Grand on Wednesday night.
Suffolk Construction CEO Andy Ball is based in S.F. and says there was an overall optimism at ULI that things are going well. But he told us on Wednesday that lots of out-of-towners soon realized via panels how hard it is to do biz in S.F. due to comes to entitlements and the political process.
On Wednesday, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice listed ways to re-establish the post–WWII order in which peace, stability and free markets are valued and defended. She's now a professor at Stanford University.
A big part of the week was touring some of the most sustainable offices in town. On Thursday Bisnow stopped by for a tour of the LEED Platinum Adobe offices at 601 Townsend in SoMa.
