In early November 2015, ULI Germany collaborated with ULI New York to host a three-day exchange and promotion programme in New York City, including site tours, a real estate conference, a gala dinner and an expert roundtable.

The exchange kicked off with a gala dinner on November 3rd at The Loeb Boathouse in Central Park. ULI Germany’s chair Jürgen Fenk, Member of the Board, Helaba Landesbank and the NYC chair Robert Lieber, Executive Managing Director Island Capital Group, welcomed over 160 guest for an evening of transatlantic networking. Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the City Planning Commission and Director of the Department of City Planning, delivered the keynote and his shared insights on New York City’s future developments.

The following day was dedicated to a “Cross Border Investments & Global Innovation” conference hosted by Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management at the Deutsche Bank HQ on Wall Street. The programme began with a presentation by Christoph Schumacher, Chief Executive Officer, Union Investment, introducing over 100 attendees to investment opportunities in German real estate markets.  The informative presentation was followed by an economic outlook delivered by Kevin White, Head of Strategy, Research and Strategy for the Americas, Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management. The presentation touched on short and long term trends and rates of supply growth, which, excluding apartments, are at a historically low rate. White also presented a breakout of key opportunities globally, including themes in markets as varied as Australia, Japan, and Southern Europe.

The morning’s first panel, entitled “Cross Border Investment Opportunities & Capital Flows,” was moderated by Darcy Stacom, Vice Chairman of Investment Properties at CBRE. Session participants compared and contrasted trends in New York and German markets. The dynamic conversation brought insightful perspectives from our German members Fenk and Christoph Schumacher, Chief Executive Officer, Union Investment. Providing the voice from New York were Ravi Sinha, Senior Advisor, Corestate Capital, and David Zobel, Vice President, Acquisitions and Strategic Relationships, Paramount.

The presentation that followed was by Hugh F. Kelly, PhD, Clinical Professor of Real Estate, NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, and explored how 24-hour cities can drive economic development and attract investment.

The conference closed with the panel, “The Future of Cities in the U.S. and Germany,” with moderator Peter Miscovich, Managing Director of Corporate Solutions, Jones Lang LaSalle and speakers Kelly; Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, Chief Executive Officer, HafenCity Hamburg; Vishaan Chakrabarti, Founder and CEO, Partnership for Architecture and Urbanism; and Markus Wiedenmann, Managing Partner, Art-Invest Real Estate.  The panellists lead a thought provoking conversation on how cities can support inclusive growth and the role of technology in improving city life. There were striking similarities between Berlin and New York insofar as tech tenants moving to previously undesirable parts of the city and introducing different types of buildings to the city’s office inventory.

After so much theoretical exchange, the delegation visited some of the latest developments in NYC like the Hudson Yard, the Highline and some residential developments.

The ULI New York – ULI Germany exchange concluded with an invite-only capital markets roundtable followed by an impressive site tour to Brooklyn – NYC’s latest place to be.

The exchange epitomized the value of the ULI global network and encouraged the New York District Council to think about pursuing more cross-border exchanges in the future.

ULI Germany would kindly like to thank the supporters of this program: Allianz Real Estate, Helaba – Landesbank Hesses Thüringen, Corestate Capital AG, Beiten Burkhard, Paramount and Union Investment.