Stephanie Wasser
Title: Executive Director, Urban Land Institute, Boston Council; Boston
Age: 58
Experience: 36 years in real estate, 5.5 at ULI Boston
Stephanie Wasser spent more than 30 years as a developer, specializing in multifamily housing and commercial real estate projects. Since late 2006, she has been executive director of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Boston Council. With more than 1,200 members throughout New England, the Boston District Council is one of the Washington-based nonprofit education and research organization’s 10 largest district councils. Wasser spoke recently with CRE Insider about ULI Boston’s programs, as well as its pro-bono technical assistance panels – increasingly in demand by cash-strapped municipalities seeking urban planning innovations to revitalize their downtowns.
How is ULI different from other real estate organizations?
What makes ULI unique and special is that we are a convener. We convene people to share best practices. And we are the only real estate organization that brings together all disciplines, all product types, all sectors. So, you’re getting the public sector, the private sector and the for-profits, nonprofits. You’re getting architects, planners, developers, investors, lawyers. You’re getting the whole range of the capital structure, as well as the developers, designers and planners. And you’re getting all products types – hospitality, retail, housing, office, industrial … We do not lobby.
What programs do you offer members?
We put on 40 to 45 programs a year. Some are small programs – under 40 attendees. Our biggest programs – our Trends program and Urban Marketplace – are close to 400. Each month, we do a large panel discussion, and those have been running about 125 attendees. We have 10 member lunches a year, and those pull in about 80 attendees. Our speakers are “the voices that matter.” We’ve had Roger Berkowitz [Legal Sea Foods president and CEO]; Ron Drucker [real estate developer and president of The Drucker Co. Ltd.]; Jeffrey Mullan [former Massachusetts transportation secretary]; John Fish [chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction Co.]. We’re having [U.S. Rep.] Barney Frank speaking at our June member luncheon. They speak about real estate, but they also speak about areas they’re passionate about. John Fish spoke about philanthropy.
What are ULI’s Technical Assistance Panels (TAP)?
TAP is the essence of ULI. It allows members to share their expertise pro bono, to give back to municipalities that have a land-use challenge, which may not have the resources to hire a $100,000 consulting report. Sometimes, it just allows [municipalities] to get an unvarnished recommendation instead of getting caught up [in politics], and just to ultimately shed new light on an existing land use challenge. We’re doing about six or seven a year. MassDevelopment is helping us underwrite four of them – in Fitchburg, Pittsfield, Fall River and Haverhill. We’re also doing some that are not with MassDevelopment. We cover all of New England. We’re doing one in Northeast Harbor Maine. We did a TAP in Exeter, R.I.
Who is on the technical assistance panels?
The panels are multi-disciplinary, based on the challenge presented. They usually have one or two developers, someone from marketing and retail. One of the developers is usually a housing developer, and also transportation consultants.
What are some examples of recent TAPs?
In Salem – that was not a MassDevelopment one – the town had this parcel of land right across from this historic pedestrian mall that they were convinced they had to build a new parking garage on. Well, it turns out that Salem is really only short on parking the last week in October. What the panel found was that there was already too much retail. What they really needed to do was take that sight and encourage multifamily housing. Right now, they’re developing a RFP for the site for housing. This is a perfect example of a TAP – people get thinking a certain way, then we come in, no skin in the game, and run these day-long charettes where we interview stakeholders and then the team meets in the afternoon to shine a fresh light on it.
What is ULI’s Young Leaders program?
We were the first real estate organization to create a young leaders group. It started over 10 years ago, and the programs are for any of our members who are under 35. It’s really a way to build human capital and create the leaders and decision-makers for tomorrow, and give them a venue, an opportunity to build their leadership skills and make their own connections. They have a subgroup called university outreach. They have graduate students come in and learn about the different areas in the workforce. They have their own programming board and their own executive committee. They have programmed some fabulous walking tours, led by Randi Lathrop [deputy director/community planning at the Boston Redevelopment Authority]. They have their own socials and their own panel discussions. They love to network with senior people, but when they’re with their own peers it’s a little less intimidating. They can step into leadership roles a little more comfortably.
Stephanie Wasser’s Five Favorite Places To Visit:
- Portugal
- The Dolomite Mountains, Northern Italy
- Hong Kong: “It’s like a tropical New York on steroids.”
- London
- Beijing: “It’s fabulous.”
