The meeting kicked off with mobile tours of the Stonewall Corridor, Charlotte Airfield, Camp North End and South End. Keynote speaker Jillian Tett discussed her findings from the World Economic Forum, bringing a global perspective to the real estate industry and our region.

To say the crowd was wowed by Vinh Giang’s take on collaboration and perspective in problem solving, would be an understatement. Attendees also heard from public and private sector professionals on topics such as urban resilience, housing affordability and community engagement. The meeting finished off with the popular Crane Watch session, which focused on six new and innovative projects taking shape around the Carolinas.

See what ULI Carolinas Meeting Public Sector Scholarship recipient, Eric Pohlman, had to say about the meeting. Mr. Pohlman is West Ashley Project Coordinator for the City of Charleston.

Queen City reforging it’s Crown

When you are in the public sector at meetings you will hear frequently “That would be okay for Charlotte but this is {insert city name} and we need something better.”  But after having visited Charlotte for the ULI Carolinas Meeting, I have to say, I am willing to challenge that statement.  If only some of our developments and plans could spring to life the way Charlotte has breathed new vitality in South End and their economy.  When I would visit Charlotte I would usually stay out near South Park Shopping Mall (black Friday deals!) but the City has come alive in its core.

The Blue Line, an area that for a long time seemed to just be a train running along parking lots and former industry areas, has spurred the development the City always knew it could.  There are vibrant living accommodations, entertainment and food destinations, and now it is filling in with the promised economic offices.  I was most impressed with how the South End was able to lure in a suburban living corner stone, Lowes Home Improvement corporate office.  To put on top of it that the tower it will occupy is 25 stories tall was just impressive.

The following day at the meeting I was able to hear from multiple new industry sources that I otherwise would not have known.  The session that stuck out to me the most, and has the most viability in my line, was the Disrupting the Landscape – Entrepreneurs of the Shared Economy. This was a panel focused on a new way to do business that is rooted in the way we used to operate.  The idea of Co-Living and Co-Working should not be new, but this old idea is new again.  The different styles of co-living was informative and I was most interested in, since the only information I had received was closer to the style that Ollie provides.  I was interested in hearing about how Community Room Rental is operating with the same goal, but in a suburban environment, an option much more viable in the South East.  Also the vitality and community the Co-Working and Co-Living spaces created is of interest to me as we continue to separate ourselves off from the broader community through commuting in cars to private areas.

The ULI Carolinas Meeting was a wonderful chance I had to see development form a different perspective, to explore a city that I had known for being generic and see that it is truly unique and a pioneer in Southeastern urban design and development.

Here’s what our Carolinas Meeting Young Leader Scholarship Winner, Cori Nuttall (Lee & Associates) had to say about the meeting:

There is no shortage of new business opportunities and investment in the southeast, particularly in the Carolinas, as evidenced by the numerous projects presented at the ULI Carolinas Meeting in Charlotte. In fact, the opening session was entitled ‘Tackling the Challenges of a Thriving Region’, which is certainly a great problem to have. Sustainable and responsible growth remains a common goal for both public and private leadership. The breakout sessions continued along this theme with discussions pertaining to affordable housing, urban resilience and proactive infrastructure. My personal favorite session was the Opening Keynote from author and journalist Gillian Tett. Her insights into the changing landscape of American social anthropology were a compelling foreshadowing of the intersection of business and cultural evolution. I found her presentation absolutely fascinating. All this against the backdrop of the thriving city of Charlotte, complete with construction cranes dotting the skyline, made for an optimistic look to the future for development in the Carolinas region.