Memphian chosen for Urban Land Institute's "40 Under 40"

The Urban Land 40 Under 40 represent the best young land use professionals from around the globe, as selected by members of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a member-supported nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to providing leadership in the responsible use of land. ?Tommy Pacello, a senior project manager with the Mayor's Innovation Delivery Team, was the only honoree chosen from Tennessee. Applicants, who had to be under age 40 as of June 1, 2014, were drawn from the real estate and land-use disciplines, including development, finance, design, planning, sustainability, public policy, and academia.

The winners were recognized by ULI Global Chairman Lynn Thurber during an address to attendees at the institute’s 2014 Fall Meeting in New York City. “These professionals are already making an impact on the industry,” Thurber said. “They are demonstrating outstanding leadership in all areas of real estate — design, development, finance, planning, sustainability, public policy, and academia. Their work is helping to keep ULI at the forefront of community building in the 21st century.”

Pacello, a lawyer and city planner, directs strategies to create economic vitality in the urban core of Memphis, Tennessee. He has launched several economic development efforts as a member of the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team, a three-year initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies to help mayors solve problems and improve city life. His team launched MEMfix and MEMShop, which temporarily reactivated and reanimated vacant streets, storefronts, and public spaces. The program linked entrepreneurs to developers, designers, customers, and financing to create successful and self-sustaining businesses in the city’s most challenged urban areas.

Pacello also worked with a group to develop and execute a “previtalization” strategy for a historic brewery faced with demolition unless a new owner could be identified. The team temporarily activated the building as a six-week beer garden and pop-up restaurant, hosting more than 25,000 people over 24 days. The project demonstrated the building’s value, presented potential developers with a new calculus for incremental redevelopment and a real-life market study, and led to a new owner with redevelopment plans purchasing the property.

“Neighborhoods are incredibly complex places, and there are no better experts than the people who live, work, and play there,” he says. “Revitalization that builds off the vision and ideas of those experts and is implemented through small, iterative, and incremental projects [is] inherently more sustainable and authentic than top-down, silver-bullet approaches.” 

Read more about The Urban Land 40 Under 40 here.