The graduating class is comprised of 34 emerging land use and real estate development industry leaders from throughout South Florida, and includes developers, architects, attorneys, engineers, bankers, planners, brokers, and other real estate professionals from both the private and public sectors.

“We’d like to congratulate the Class of 2023 on their hard work completing the program,” said Julie Medley, the district’s Executive Director. “We are very proud of their accomplishments and are excited to welcome them into our growing cohort of Leadership Institute Alumni.”

The hands-on, eight-month program is designed to cultivate leaders in the real estate industry and facilitate collaboration to examine some of Southeast Florida’s most pressing land use issues.

“Leadership is a critical component of this industry,” said the program’s Former Chair Eric Swanson, Principal of Avison Young.” The knowledge, perspectives, connectivity, and passions that this graduating class brings to our district is huge, and will play an important role in helping make our communities more livable, vibrant and sustainable”.

“Congratulations to this class of 2023 that will have that kind of impact in South Florida!” said the program’s Previous Leadership Institute Chair, Jorg Flachowsky.

Throughout the course of the program, the graduates lent their professional expertise to solving local land use challenges through Leadership Projects, which provide pro-bono advising on particular land use or policy challenges faced by public and nonprofit entities in the region. This year’s class worked on projects for West Palm Beach DDA, Town of Surfside, Miami DDA, First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, ACE Theater, and City of Miami.