Name Change of the Council of Urban Real Estate (CURE) is announced
At Major Networking Event on July 31st

New York, NY – August 21, 2014 – At a time when diversity has broadened to represent a greater range of professionals beyond solely African Americans, The African American Real Estate Professionals of New York (AAREPNY) has been renamed The Council of Urban Real Estate (CURE).

The decision to rebrand the organization was made to ensure its continued relevance for stakeholders, and to sustain CURE’s core mission of increasing diversity and inclusion throughout the real estate and construction industries. To mark the new name, a major networking event attended by more than 150 members and guests took place in Midtown at Le Reve on July 31st.

“We recognize that the world is changing and our organization has grown beyond its grass roots,” said Kendrick Harris, a real estate attorney with the law firm Bryant Rabbino, LLP, and president of CURE. Speaking at the event, Mr. Harris explained that “in order to achieve our goal of creating a network of diverse real estate professionals across a wide range of ethnicities and genders, we felt it was crucial to reflect the broader range of constituents we now serve, including women and the growing Hispanic and Asian communities.”

According to Douglas G. Giles, a vice president with First Nationwide Title Agency and executive vice of president CURE, “Although twenty-three percent of the population of this country are ethnic minorities, unfortunately minorities make up less than 2% of all professionals within the commercial real estate industry. The industry is now a global enterprise, and in order to stay competitive companies should be taking advantage of the talent, diverse backgrounds, and the unique perspectives that qualified minority professionals have to offer. With that understanding, the Council of Urban Real Estate seeks to diversify and empower qualified diverse professionals through targeted programming along with exposure to the decision makers within commercial real estate locally, nationally and internationally.”

“At First Nationwide Title, we take corporate social responsibility seriously as exemplified by the wide gender and ethnic diversity of our staff, the growing minority customer base we serve, and our commitment to support such visionary organizations as CURE,” added Steven Napolitano, president of First Nationwide Title Agency.