Virtual Holiday Cocktails and Conversations
December 6, 2023
This program featured dynamic female founders, including Kirstyn Shaw and Alex Gagne who shared their hilarious stories about growing their retail businesses. Following their presentations and Q&A, we broke into small groups for more intimate conversations. We also shared cocktail/mocktail recipes featuring women vintners/distillers and raised our glasses together to toast the holidays and our amazing ecosystem of women in development!! We also were thrilled to share WDC’s 2023 annual holiday gift guide of retailers.
Virtual Developer Forum – Building Partnerships: Forward-thinking project delivery solutions
November 15, 2023
This program showcased innovative financing and construction techniques being used by development teams to achieve high quality projects with efficient design, reduced construction costs, and timely project delivery. Iliana Niculescu-Roman of SCCS Group moderated this experienced panel featuring Suzanne Brown of Equity Community Builders, Lia Tatevosian of Swinerton, and Joy Ou of Group i.
WDC LA Fall Meeting: The VIP In LA CRE & Rewriting the Script – On Progress and Partnerships in CRE
Main Program, November 3, 2023
We learned about the women-led projects throughout downtown LA and a powerhouse group of women entrepreneurs and developers who are writing a new script on innovative partnerships and shared lessons learned about how they are creating a new paradigm for success in real estate.
Pre-Program, November 2, 2023
This program featured the women who are reimagining hospitality in DTLA and led the stunning restoration of the award winning Proper Hotel.
WDC Investment Forum: Guarantees – Partnering to Close the Capital Gap
September 13, 2023
Securing guarantees are a significant hurdle when it comes to raising capital for development. Organizations across the U.S. are closing the capital gap with programs that provide debt, equity and credit enhancement for developers whose balance sheets don’t meet traditional investor requirements. We learned how these innovative programs are meaningfully reducing the systemic barriers faced by emerging women and BIPOC developers, and how they can be replicated and expanded to broaden capital access. Charmaine Curtis of Curtis Development moderated a panel of innovative capital providers which featured Miranda Walker of U.S. Bank and Reagan Maechling of Enterprise and Marseah “Marcy” Delatte, Principal Owner of New Orleans Restoration Properties.
WDC Copia-Investor Collaborative Roundtable Featuring WREIC and Its Co-Founders
August 8, 2023
WDC and the Women’s Real Estate Investment Consortium (WREIC) explored future collaborations to promote investment in real estate developments led by women. Our August 8 Investment Roundtable began with a presentation by WREIC co-founders, Jill Homan and Jenna Howard, followed by audience and roundtable discussions. WREIC connects accredited women investors to commercial real estate investment opportunities and leverages the expertise of its members to learn from each other about how to wisely and effectively invest in real estate. Co-founder Jill Homan is President of Javelin 19 Investments, a North Carolina-based real estate investment, development, and advisory firm, and Jenna Howard is Senior Vice President at Lockton where she works with public and private organizations to identify, assess, and manage their financial, operational, and reputational risks.
Room of Our Own: Design, Build, Scale: Leaping forward to provide housing for all
June 13, 2023
This program showcased ground-breaking organizations who are rapidly designing, building, and scaling new housing to address homelessness and provide housing for all members of our communities. Our panel featured Elizabeth Funk of Dignity Moves, Holly Arnold of Gensler and Jennifer Litwak of Housing on Merit. Moderated by Faye Beverett of Bard Consulting, we explored key opportunities and challenges for deploying innovative design and construction technologies, providing services to residents and attracting capital to scale growth rapidly.
WDC Toronto at the start of ULI Spring Meeting
Main Program, May 15, 2023
Program began next to Union Station at KG&A with an inspiring panel of Toronto women developers followed by a tour through downtown Toronto and finished with a reception at Urban Strategies.
Pre-Program, May 14, 2023
Tour of Toronto’s historic downtown eastside featuring women-led developments began at Bousfields followed by 6 PM dinner at Terroni Adelaide with conversations about transformative development and investment in Canada and US.
Planting Seeds: How crowdfunding, micro-loans and philanthropy are catalyzing developments
April 25, 2023
WDC’s Investment Forum showcased how predevelopment funding is planting seeds to support the growth of women developers. Our dynamic panel described how micro-loans, philanthropy, crowdfunding, and women investors are helping to fund transformative developments across the country. The program featured Karen Burton and Jill Ferrari, co-founders of WSDI and 100 Women in CRE, which provide support, resources and micro-loans to female developers in Michigan, Kathleen Minogue who founded Crowdfund Better, the nation’s leading crowdfunding education organization, and Xiomara Cisneros who oversees housing programs, grants and investments for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Room of Our Own: Disruptive Innovators Propelling Housing Forward
March 2, 2023
We joined these dynamic innovators who are disrupting the housing industry and discussed how they are deploying technology to reduce our carbon footprint and make housing faster, cheaper and easier to construct. Katherine (Katie) Faulkner showcaseed how her company, Highland Park Technologies, is developing a cost-effective, exterior panel that provides a deep energy retrofit for low-rise multifamily residential buildings. Meea Kang of Related California discussed how she is deploying modular construction by Factory OS to build 248 apartments south of Lake Tahoe in California. Dafna Kaplan demonstrated how her construction technology company, Cassette, is simplifying construction 1000 homes at a time through modular system engineering and deployment. Kate McGee, Principal of KM Planning Strategy, moderated the program.
Investment Forums: Organizing Investment Club of Accredited Investors & Organizing Investor Collaborative
January 11, 2023
January 17, 2023
Organizational and strategy meetings where we initiated the formation and implementation of two types of investment clubs
- Investment Club of Accredited Investors– A formal organizational structure that would enable a group of accredited investors to evaluate opportunities and invest either as individual investors or as a group of investors in women-led developments
- Investor Collaborative (mix of investors)— Informal educational club focused on crowd funding opportunities and individual investments in women-led developments by WDC members who are non-accredited and accredited investors.