This spring, Joseph Azrack, MBA ’72, president and CEO of Citigroup Property Investors, generously donated the complete Urban Land Institute (ULI) “library” to the School. The institute is a multidisciplinary real estate forum that promotes information sharing and responsible leadership to improve land use and enhance the environment. In addition to more than 60 ULI titles, the library includes all books to be released by the institute within the next three years, as well as other resources that are available only to ULI members. “This is a terrific resource that students could never afford but can really use,” notes Nicole Fernandez, MBA ’05, copresident of Columbia’s student-run Real Estate Association. “The development and urban planning materials are a wonderful complement to our curriculum and are very current.” Among the books are the recently published Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2004 and Emerging Trends Europe 2004, current market forecasts produced from a series of interviews with leading real estate authorities. Dollars & Cents of Shopping Centers 2004, released in mid-March, provides income and expense data collected from almost 1,000 centers’ year-end financial statements. A CD-ROM accompanies the book, permitting users to cut and paste data into their own reports. Beyond books, students will gain access to ULI’s Development Case Studies database, which boasts more than 350 reviews covering a range of development types, including office, retail and housing. Site plans, project data and details of the development process will be available either online or at computer terminals in the Watson Business and Economics Library, where the entire collection will be housed. Approximately 20 new cases are added to the database each year. Subscriptions to two ULI magazines are also part of the library. The monthly Urban Land delivers market profiles, project studies, overviews of financing trends and a focus on a different development type each issue. The quarterly Multifamily Trend offers discussions of trends and best practices in the design, financing, management and marketing of multifamily properties. Howie Friedman ’05, copresident of the Real Estate Association, emphasizes the scope of the donation’s impact: “Mr. Azrack has chosen a gift that will directly benefit real estate students, but will also be valuable for all MBA students and other schools at Columbia.” Azrack is chair of the School’s Real Estate Program Advisory Board and former adjunct professor of real estate finance. He is also a member and trustee of ULI.