Geoffrey Booth

Biography: GEOFFREY BOOTH Director, Retail Development Urban Land Institute Washington, D.C. Email: [email protected] Web: www.uli.org Geoffrey was recruited in late 1999 from Australia by the Urban Land Institute to take up the newly created position of Director, Retail Development. His career began at Australia's largest metropolitan government, the Brisbane City Council, where he held various senior positions including Foundation Director of the Office of Economic Development and Urban Policy Advisor to the Lord Mayor. Geoffrey was later appointed Director of the Australian subsidiary companies of Tobishima Corporation of Japan and was responsible for financing, development management, leasing, marketing and property management of its AUD $350 million retail, office, industrial and residential property portfolio and its property trusts, including the Aushima Australia Property Fund. Tobishima's property portfolio included the 500,000-square-foot Australia Fair Shopping Center, and the 600,000-square-foot Coronation Drive Office Park. He first traveled to the United States in 1994 to review Tobishima's east and west coast property portfolio. On his return to Australia, Geoffrey established the planning and development advisory firm Planning Australia Pty Ltd. Planning Australia was unique in that 10 percent of its income was set aside to fund planning research, publications and pro bono work for community groups. The company also pioneered the best practice refurbishment and mixed-use development of Brisbane's pre-war commercial character buildings. He was the inaugural Chair of the Property Council of Australia's Planning and Development Committee and was a foundation member of the Minister's Taskforce that drafted Queensland's Integrated Planning Act. Geoffrey undertook due diligence and development conceptualization of major shopping center developments for several Australian retail investors and developers; designed the Helensvale Town Center and wrote the World Expo Site Redevelopment Guidelines, the Place Making Code for the Gold Coast City Council (Australia's second largest local authority), and the Centers Policy for the state capital, Brisbane. He was regularly called as an expert witness in Planning and Environment Court Appeals. He conducted a study tour of retail property investment projects and trends in Australia and North America in 1999. Since taking up his position at ULI in January, 2000 he has been the retail expert on both the Bound Brook and Trenton, New Jersey and San Jose, California, ULI Advisory Services Panels. He is the principal author of the place-making books, Transforming Suburban Business Districts and Ten Principles for Reinventing Suburban Business Districts. Other publications for which he is responsible are Dollars and Cents of Shopping Centers, 2002, Trends and Innovations in Retail Development, and Successful Shopping Places. Geoffrey is responsible for the development and implementation of ULI's strategy to expand its global operations through ULI Asia. Geoffrey has a 1st Class Honors degree in Regional and Town Planning from the University of Queensland and higher degrees in Public Administration, Applied Finance and Investment. He was born in 1957 and married his wife, Deby in 1976. They now live in Maryland USA His teenage son, Matthew is currently completing high school in the United States and his daughter, Rachel is completing her university studies in Australia.