Craig Hirai’s 2015 ULI Fall Meeting Blog

The 2015 ULI Fall Meeting was the first ULI national meeting I have attended. I have been the Executive Director of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation for almost two years. My government organization has been a member of the ULI for many years and as the Executive Director I am the designated full member.

I applied for the Rose Center scholarship because it gave me an opportunity to be a guest of the Transit Oriented Development Product Council. Keeping up on the latest developments in Transit oriented development is important to my agency because the City and County of Honolulu is currently building a new rail transit line and my agency is trying to locate as much affordable rental housing as possible in Mixed-use projects on State lands near the rail stations.

The Council reception on the second night of the Fall Meeting gave me an opportunity to meet experts from around the country and catch up with members and guests of the Council from Honolulu, and the Council meeting the next morning allowed me to ask questions of TOD developers from around the country and catch up on pending TOD infrastructure financing legislation in Washington, D.C. In the afternoon of the third day we had a guided tour of the Transbay Development Project the scope and complexity of which was quite impressive.

The speakers and subjects covered on the second and fourth days were timely and relevant, and the opportunity to make site visits to rental projects such as 280 Beale Street and 1180 Fourth Street on the first day of the Fall Meeting was also useful and worthwhile.

I found the Fall Meeting and the Transit Oriented Development Product Council events extremely useful and would strongly urge the Rose Center to make these scholarships available to other public officials from around the country.