The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities presented the 2011 Lafayette Seminar “Town and Gown III: The University-Neighborhood Connection” on Feb. 16 and 23. This year’s two-part seminar, which was free and open to the public, looked at how universities and colleges can help shape the communities they call home.
The 2011 Lafayette Seminar opened with the talk “How Great Universities Can Shape Great Cities” by Omar Blaik, president and CEO of U3 Ventures LLC, a real estate development and advisory firm solely focused on developing the university market.
2011 Lafayette Seminar “How Great Universities Can Shape Great Cities” from UK Gaines Center on Vimeo.
Omar Blaik founded U3 Ventures in 2006 with the belief that anchor institutions hold the key to sustainable community and economic development in many cities across the country. He has led the advisory efforts of U3 Ventures over the past five years working with university leaders, cities and municipalities, state governments and foundations. Blaik’s advisory work focuses on institutional strategy, campus edge planning, deploying economic activity for local benefits, real estate strategy and economic feasibility. U3 Ventures specializes in leveraging economic capacity, integrating institutions with their surrounding neighborhoods, and creating opportunities for vibrancy around urban universities…Download more information.
Town-gown relations the topic of Wednesday lecture at UK
By Beverly Fortune, 2.15.11, Kentucky.com
Large urban universities often underestimate the effects their decisions have on neighborhoods around their campuses and their cities, says Omar Blaik.
“We’ve been to 30 to 40 campuses, and it is just remarkable how similar the approach is and how devastating the impact is on neighborhoods,” said Blaik, president of U3Ventures, a real estate development and consulting firm that specializes in helping universities integrate with their surroundings to create vibrant areas…Read more at Kentucky.com
