Featured Projects

  • University of Maryland

    Since 2009, U3 Advisors has served University of Maryland in College Park, advising on a variety of real estate and community engagement initiatives. Cumulatively, the strategies have led to the University forming a stronger working relationship in College Park, and laying the groundwork to transform the Downtown into a vibrant college town district.

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  • Cornell Tech

    U3A served as consultant to Cornell in the University’s successful quest to win the Bloomberg administration’s competition to attract a world-class applied sciences and engineering campus to New York City, and has since served as real estate advisor in implementing the 2 million square foot campus.

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Services



U3 Advisors practices at the intersection between cities and the institutions and non-profits that anchor them. We bring a deep understanding of distinct but critical perspectives: an institution’s mission & campus vision, financial feasibility of a project, and impact on real estate & community outcomes. Through these perspectives, U3 Advisors delivers partnership-based services and meaningful, impactful strategies and products.

Parcel Services
Parcel
Focusing on a specific building or site, U3 Advisors leverages its deep understanding of non-profit facilities development and management to support our clients through a variety of services.
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Campus Services
Campus
At a campus level, U3 Advisors draws on its experience working inside and in partnership with non-profit anchors to align its institutional mission with its campus vision.
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District Services
District
At a district scale, U3 Advisors deploys strategies and programs that aim to leverage the economic power and demand of anchor institutions to increase vitality, promote connections and create economic opportunity.
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News + Ideas

Ideas

U3A Authors "Value Capture In The Commons" Toolkit

U3A authored the Value Capture in the Commons toolkit for Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national initiative to foster engagement, equity, environmental sustainability, and economic development in our cities. The goal of this effort is to give community leaders a set of established and emerging tools to both sustain ongoing operations of shared civic assets and benefit existing neighbors. Download the toolkit from here. 

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Ideas

U3A's Jaime Flaherty Co-Authored Article Featured In New Book On "Rethinking The University And Development In South Africa".

U3 Advisors Managing Director & CFO Jaime Flaherty's co-authored article - “Integrating the Edges: University of Pretoria’s Neighbourhood Anchor Strategy” - has been reprinted as part of "Anchored In Place - Rethinking Higher Education and Development in South Africa", edited by Leslie J. Bank, Nico Cloete & François van Schalkwyk.

The article highlights the significant initiatives UP is undertaking to lead an urban renewal and social transformation project around its Hatfield campus in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. U3 Advisors worked on developing the framework strategy for UP and drew upon their deep experience with anchor institution strategies in the United States. The article grew out of Jaime’s presentation at the University-City Building Conference in Cape Town (October 2016) which hosted experts and key stakeholders around higher education initiatives in South Africa.

Learn more about U3 Advisors' work with the University of Pretoria here. 

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Press

Universities Look to Strengthen the Places They Call Home

U3 Advisors' CEO Omar Blaik offers our perspective on universities and local communities in the New York Times article, "Universities Look to Strengthen the Places They Call Home" -- “You really cannot thrive as an institution by starving the neighborhood around you and being so singularly focused on your own goals,” said Omar Blaik, a former vice president at the University of Pennsylvania, now the chief executive of the consulting firm U3 Advisors. “You advance your own goals in an enlightened self-interest way by advancing goals of the neighborhood and the city.”

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