Since the last time Detroit REAL Professionals met, there have been some big industry meetings and for the first time in 40 years, the Urban Land institute met in Detroit. The Urban Land Institute was hosted in Cobo Hall in Detroit and had roughly 6,000 potential stakeholders attend reported Detroit REAL Professional Guest, Kelli Herman from Neumann Smith Architecture.

Kelli said that the biggest highlight was the walking tours. “We had great weather for everyone to walk around and see the progress and development,” she said. “There was a lot of buzz from people outside the city who attended. They felt safe and relieved so the walking tours had a huge impact in terms of turning the conversation around with safety — that was big.”

In terms of economics during the Urban Land Institute event, there were lots of Ubers driving people around. Visitors went to the restaurants, retail stores, Tiger stadium, the and the Detroit Athletic Club, to name a few. Events were set up everywhere including Cobo Hall.

“Our firm has had a lot of phone calls since the event for tours of buildings, and where do we think the next big area is going to be,” Kelli reports. “Jefferson Ave. toward Grosse Pointe is getting a lot of interest from out-of-state folks because there is land there now. It was a big hit for Detroit and for our industry.”