The Indiana district council of the Urban Land Institute recently celebrated the completion of the 2020 installment of its Real Estate Diversity Initiative program, a 15-week curriculum that prepares participants for real estate development opportunities in Indiana.

“There are underrepresented populations in the commercial real estate industry,” said Trinity Hart, ULI Indiana’s chair for mission advancement and the diversity initiative. “This program seeks to address this and position a new generation of developers for opportunity in Indiana. Equitable development must start within the industry itself and the only way to achieve that is to diversify our development teams and those building wealth.”

ULI Indiana was one of four district councils awarded a $20,000 grant real estate diversity initiative grant from ULI and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to be applied over a period of two years. The Central Indiana Community Foundation contributed an additional $10,000 to the program.

The following scholars were accepted into the program by a competitive process and have successfully graduated from the 2020 program.

• Rajbinder Dhaliwal, Manager, Vapari Residential LLC
• Robert Hall, Broker, Jones Lang LaSalle
• Kelli Mirgeaux, President, Southeast Neighborhood Development, Inc.
• Ramon Morrison , Principal – Director of Business Development & Engagement, Meticulous Design + Architecture
• Amina Pierson, Executive Director, Martindale Brightwood Community Development Corporation
• Manveer Sandhu
• Samantha Spergel, Director of Real Estate Strategic Initiatives and Engagement, Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority
• Leah Stanton, Client Relations + Business Development, Carson Design Associates
• Sharon Thompson, Executive Director, KW Commercial / Keller Williams
• Keith Veal, President, ReSITE Development

Scholars participated in educational sessions and engaged in experience-based learning by developing a hypothetical development plan, pro-forma and marketing plan for a local site. The 2020 team project focused on a site on Indiana Avenue near the newly renovated Madam Walker Legacy Center, where classes initially took place before moving to online instruction due to COVID-19.

Sponsors for the educational sessions included Core Redevelopment, Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Flaherty & Collins Properties, J.C. Hart Company, Kairos Asset Strategies, LandWorx Engineering, Meticulous Design + Architecture, and Shrewsberry & Associates.

Learn more about the program at indiana.uli.org/programs/diversity-initiative.