Courses for redevelopment professionals: Formed by the University of Pennsylvania and a national network of leading practitioners, the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence has spent five years recruiting, placing and training early and mid-career professionals in urban redevelopment. We have accelerated careers in development, public service, lending and investing, and other roles in which professionals use real estate as a means to improve the quality of life for distressed urban communities and low income people.

As part of its fellowship programs, the Center created specialized training courses for large-scale redevelopment. The courses emphasize the business of real estate, ensuring access and benefits for lower income residents, and the overall benefits of reinvestment for the larger community.

We are now working to make these courses available to interested professionals who wish to expand their knowledge while continuing to work in their current jobs.

Courses will only be offered if enrollment is sufficient. In order to plan effectively, we need specific input from interested people. Please take a moment to read the following information, and participate in a short survey to help us create the most useful program possible.

For more information, please jump to:

• Who should attend • Courses and faculty • Graduate level credit available from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design • Schedule • Locations • Survey • Questions

Who should attend: Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence courses are geared for people with at least three years of work experience relevant to comprehensive neighborhood redevelopment in urban areas. Relevant experience may include real estate development, urban planning, real estate finance, real estate law, architecture, construction, public policy, community organizing and other areas.

If you have questions about whether your experience would qualify you to pursue the certificate or benefit from individual courses, please send a resume and specific questions to us at curepenn@design.upenn.edu. We will respond to all inquiries as soon as possible.

Courses and faculty: Taken together, the courses provide a well-rounded foundation for people with experience in one or more aspects of urban redevelopment. Students may also choose to take individual courses, in order to complement prior professional experience or study.

Subjects include:

• The redevelopment process • Aligning capacities interests among public, private, nonprofit and neighborhood stakeholders • Entrepreneurship in urban redevelopment • Financing mixed income rental property • Financing and developing mixed income home ownership property • Financing and developing commercial and mixed use property in distressed neighborhoods • Innovative approaches for assessing potential markets • Connecting human capital building initiatives with urban redevelopment • Neighborhood urban design and planning

All courses are taught by senior practitioners, using original cases and drawing upon decades of successful experience and national networks to provide practical detail and perspective.

Click HERE for individual course descriptions and HERE f0r instructor biographical information.

Graduate level credit available: Students earn graduate-level credit from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design. Working professionals can earn a Certificate in Urban Redevelopment from the School for satisfactorily completing all 10 of the ½-credit courses (5 credit units total).

Other institutions may accept Penn credit for individual courses taken by people who are not pursuing the entire Certificate. Acceptance of Penn credit will be determined by outside institutions at their sole discretion.

Courses may also be taken on a non-credit basis, although completion of course assignments and in-class workshop participation is expected.

Click here to visit the website of the School of Design.

Schedule: We are currently planning to schedule class time for six hours each day on Fridays and Saturdays, approximately twice per month. This schedule would allow for completion of all 10 courses within one calendar year. However, we will consider alternative schedules indicated by survey results.

Click here for several example course schedules. Please note that these course schedules are for informational purposes only, to inform survey respondents. They are not confirmed.

Locations: Courses will be held in Philadelphia, and can be brought to other cities through partnerships with local organizations. If you would like to see courses brought to a location near you, please indicate your preferred location in your survey response.

Survey: In order to make the courses most useful to working professionals, we are requesting that interested people participate in a short survey about priority subjects, scheduling and tuition costs. NOTE: Since the survey will not allow you to return to our website by using the “back” button on your browser, please download course descriptions, instructor biographies and/or sample schedules from the links above before proceeding to the survey.

Survey results will contribute to our planning in very specific ways. Courses will only be offered if enrollment is sufficient, so we need your input. Thank you in advance for your contribution!

Click HERE to participate in the survey.

Questions: Please submit questions to us at curepenn@design.upenn.edu. While the University will be closed for the holidays, we will be monitoring this email account and will respond to inquiries as soon as possible.

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