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2025 ULI Fall Meeting 2025 ULI Fall Meeting
, November 04 – 06, 2025
Panelist

Mr. Matthew Kwatinetz

Director, NYU Urban Lab, Schack Institute of Real Estate NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate

Professor Kwatinetz is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Real Estate at the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate. He is the Director of the NYU Urban Lab, the Chair of the SPS Faculty Council, and the head of the Masters in Real Estate Development. Kwatinetz recently published NYC’s Affordable Housing Crisis in partnership with the AIA-NY and Center for Architecture. He is the founder of the advisory and impact investment firm Q Partners (“Q”). Previously, he was an Executive Vice President for NYC Economic Development Corporation, where he managed their 65M+ square foot real estate portfolio. For EDC, Kwatinetz also ran PortNYC, the third largest US port, including the management of the NY Cruise Terminals, the DockNYC program and the negotiations, start-up and operations of the $600M+ NYC Ferry, the largest expansion of ferry service in US history. At Q, Kwatinetz worked with Austin Mayor Steve Adler to create the Austin Economic Development Corporation. Q worked directly with Mayor Copenhaver of Augusta to found Augusta Regional Collaboration Project, a Georgia public development corporation. Other selected Q clients: the U.S. Department of Energy, NYC Department of Education, Real Capital Analytics, and the City of Shoreline. He is a former economic consultant for Penn Institute for Urban Research and the former VP of Economics and Finance at Kinzer Real Estate. In 2018, he published Thriving In Place: Supporting Austin’s Cultural Vitality Through Place-Based Economic Development, funded by the NEA and City of Austin. He is a co-author of “Introduction to the Big Data Era” with Stephan Kudyba. Kwatinetz is on the leadership team of the Urban Land Institute’s National Public/Private Partnership Council and is an international coach for ULI’s Arts In Place creative place-keeping program.

Speaking at

Tue Oct 29 4:00 PM — 5:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time Resorts World Las Vegas - Level 2, Jasmine AB

Sparking Development with Arts and Culture: Best Practices in Real Estate Development

The demand for creative placemaking in real estate development has grown rapidly since ULI's launch of its Creative Placemaking (CPM) project in 2016. ULI's 2020 publication, which inspired this session title, is the second most downloaded publication in ULI's history. ULI has built a body of CPM knowledge from studying real projects supplemented by site visits, interviews, surveys, and more. Art in Place, ULI's recent CPM initiative, involves nine global cohorts aimed at facilitating artist-developer connections. The initiative provides fresh insights and reinforces findings that CPM promotes thriving, equitable, and resilient cities and places. This session brings together a panel of internationally recognized leaders and CPM experts who corroborate ULI research with recent studies, including a 2023 study by the Toronto Metropolitan University and the recently released Volume 3 of The Place Economy containing hundreds of essays by real estate professionals spanning the globe. Panelists will discuss CPM best practices and how to apply them successfully. They will postulate on why to focus on creative placemaking in real estate development, and why now.