Houston Mayor Annise Parker Among Four U.S. Mayors Named as Fellows by the Urban Land Institute Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use

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Oct 28, 2010, 12:00 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use has named Houston Mayor Annise Parker and three other outstanding local community leaders to serve in fellowships for the Center through 2011. Parker's local team will join three others led by the mayors of Charlotte, Detroit and Sacramento.

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The mission of the ULI Rose Center is to encourage and support excellence in land use decision making. By providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources, the Center seeks to foster creative, efficient, practical, and sustainable land use policies.

"The City of Houston is honored to be selected for the Urban Land Institute's Rose Fellowship program," said Parker. "These resources will be very beneficial as we strive to accommodate growth and create a sustainable future for our city while maintaining the integrity of our neighborhoods."

Parker and her team will offer guidance to ULI in the development of products, programs and services that cover a broad spectrum of work incorporating three over-arching themes: real estate finance and development; the interdependencies and respective roles of the public and private sectors; and the role and importance of the public realm in creating viable, thriving communities.

The Houston team will work with the other selected mayors and their respective teams to address the most challenging land use issues facing their communities. Over the upcoming year, Parker and her team will work with leading experts in the real estate development, finance, and land use fields with the intention of tackling complex land use issues facing each community.

"The slow pace of economic recovery is continuing to take a toll on our nation's cities. This is undercutting America's overall economic stability, because the nation's economy is largely based on the strength of its metropolitan areas," said ULI Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. "ULI looks forward to working with the new class of Rose fellows to help them overcome obstacles posed by the current economic environment, reposition their cities for long-term prosperity, and establish a course for success that can be applied to other cities."

Parker's 2010-11 ULI Daniel Rose Fellowship team members are as follows:

George Greanias is the President and CEO of Houston METRO. Prior to joining METRO, George served as a partner at CLG, one of America's leading behavioral management firms. From 1982 through 1987, George was a member of the Houston City Council, representing the more than 270,000 residents of District C. Following his tenure on council, George served as Controller for the City of Houston until 1995.
Andy Icken currently serves as Mayor Parker's Chief Development Officer for the City of Houston. Prior to his appointment by Mayor Parker, he served as Deputy Director of Public Works & Engineering for the City of Houston – Planning & Development Services Division.
James Noteware is the Director of the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department. In 2003 and 2004, at the request of Mayor Anthony of Washington, DC and with confirmation by the White House, Mr. Noteware led the real estate investment, development and operations of the National Capital Revitalization Corporation (NCRC), a joint venture between the District of Columbia and US Federal governments, to maximize and realize the value of the real estate held by both entities in the Nation's Capital.

The ULI Rose Center was created in 2008 with a $5 million endowment by Daniel Rose, chairman of New York City–based Rose Associates, Inc., whose career has involved a broad range of professional, civic, and nonprofit activities. Rose Associates is a leading developer and manager of more than 30 million square feet of major office towers, commercial retail centers, mixed-use complexes, and high-rise residential buildings throughout the East Coast.

According to Rose, the Center is unique in how it facilitates collaboration among leaders in land use by bringing participants together from the public and private sector. "Each has much to learn from the other," he said. "The more knowledgeable and better trained people are on both sides of the table, the more effective they are. The most successful projects invariably reflect those relationships."

In addition, ULI has assembled a team of eight urban development and design leaders from around the nation who will be serving as faculty for the 2010-2011 Rose Center Fellowship cities: Hilary Bertsch, associate principal at Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects in New York City; Carlton Brown, chief operating officer at Full Spectrum of New York City; Andre Brumfield, urban design and planning principal at AECOM Design + Planning in Chicago; Antonio Fiol-Silva, principal at Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC in Philadelphia; Calvin Gladney, managing partner at Mosaic Urban Partners, LLC in Washington, DC; Con Howe, managing director of CityView's Los Angeles Fund; Mark Johnson, president of Civitas, Inc. in Denver; and Marilee Utter, president of Citiventure Associates, LLC in Denver.

The current class of Daniel Rose Fellowship teams follow the inaugural 2009-2010 class, led by the mayors of Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia and Phoenix.

"The Rose Fellowship has been a tremendous asset for us," said Philadelphia Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alan Greenberger, a 2009-2010 fellow. "It has given us an opportunity to step back and think about a particular land-use problem with outside expert help. That is very difficult to achieve in the public sector, when all of our time is extremely pressured. Through this fellowship, we were able to travel to other cities, interact with colleagues, and hear from other experts in fields that are related to what we're doing. That is not an opportunity that comes often in the daily course of life."

For more information on the Daniel Rose Fellowship program, visit: http://www.uli.org/rosecenter

About the Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has nearly 34,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.

SOURCE Urban Land Institute