Green

ULI Chair’s Fund Launched

Douglas D. Abbey

Washington – Three longtime Urban Land Institute (ULI) leaders have joined together to make a total of $17 million in donations to launch the ULI Chair’s Fund.

Douglas D. Abbey, chairman of Swift Real Estate Partners; James D. Klingbeil, founder and CEO emeritus of Klingbeil Capital Management; and Thomas W. Toomey, chairman and CEO of UDR, Inc.; have created the unrestricted fund to give ULI the flexibility to respond quickly to new opportunities as it delivers its mission of shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. The fund will provide ULI with the resources to tackle three new global priorities: increasing housing attainability, achieving net-zero emissions in the real estate sector, and educating the next generation of diverse real estate leaders.

James D. Klingbeil

“The idea with unrestricted gifts is that ULI decides where the money should go, and how it can be best used to innovate, pivot and respond to needs,” explained Klingbeil, former ULI president and ULI Foundation chair, whose Klingbeil Family Foundation is making a $7 million contribution. “What we’re trying to do here as the three founding donors is to help create something that will get larger and be able to respond to the needs of ULI as it goes forward.”

Toomey, past ULI global chairman, and Abbey, former ULI Foundation chairman, are making $5 million contributions each. The gifts establish them as members of the ULI Foundation’s Marcus Vitruvius Society.

Abbey, Klingbeil, and Toomey say they hope other members will follow their example and contribute to the ULI Chair’s Fund.  Klingbeil urged donors to consider including bequests to ULI in their estate planning.

Thomas W. Toomey

“We are incredibly grateful to Doug, Jim and Tom for their generous gifts of time, talent and financial resources over many, many years,” commented W. Edward Walter, global CEO of ULI. “Their latest gifts are very significant and will further solidify our foundation and help ensure that we can deliver on ULI’s mission well into the future.”