Urban Land Investments, Inc.

Urban Land Interests is a real estate development firm, specializing in the adaptive reuse of existing vacant structures and the development of new downtown projects. Its goal is to do a limited number of quality developments that will be owned and managed for the long term.

It has evolved from a pure real estate consulting firm, which undertook market and financial analysis to answer the real estate questions of property owners, developers, lenders and space users. The consulting work has been particularly focused on downtown development and on elderly housing with supportive services.

Urban Land Interests was organized in 1974 by Thomas Neujahr and Bradley Binkowski. By the spring of 1976 they were negotiating the purchase for their first adaptive reuse project, a vacant former mineral water bottling house in downtown Waukesha, Wisconsin. The 27-unit apartment project was completed in January 1978. The rehabilitation of the Arcadian Mineral Spring Company bottling house was followed by the adaptive reuse of a largely vacant retail/office building, a hospital, a fire station, a downtown hotel, two elementary schools and another historic commercial building, setting a course preoccupied with downtowns and older buildings.

The firm has purposely stayed small so that the principals could maintain a close personal involvement with the projects. The staff includes people experienced in development, consulting, brokerage, management, leasing, financing and equity sale.

To preserve flexibility and control, the company has no in-house design professionals. It carefully selects the combination of architect, site planner, interior designer and graphic artist that best fits the particular characteristics of each project.

Urban Land maintains an active management role and some ownership interest in every project it has developed. ULI is committed to providing services to tenants that meet or exceed expectations. The company employs it's own janitorial staff as well as HVAC technicians, painters, and maintenance employees. The foundation of it's success is built on developing lasting relationships with it's tenants.

The company still accepts a limited number of consulting assignments through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Urban Land Perspectives, Inc.

Urban Land Interests carefully selects each architect, based upon the nature of the project. There is always detailed interaction with the architect—thorough, ongoing review as plans are developed. The hands-on experience of selling, leasing and property management is fed back into the design.
Because of their background and continued involvement in real estate market research, the Urban Land staff begins with market segmentation data in developing the space planning program for a project. At times there are conflicts between the commitment to quality and the knowledge of what the market can afford to pay. These are almost always resolved in favor of the commitment to quality and design excellence.