ULI PHL’s 5th Annual Willard G. “Bill” Rouse III Awards for Excellence finalists represent superior development projects in the greater Philadelphia region that embody the ULI mission of pushing the standard of excellence in real estate and land use and creating sustainable, thriving communities.

Timothy McDonald, President and CEO of Onion Flats joins us for this week’s “Five Minutes with a Finalist”. Onion Flats has been recognized as a finalist for Capital Flats, Phases 1, 2, 3. Here’s what he had to say:

Who has had the greatest influence on your career and what was the best advice he or she gave you?

Jack McDonald (Dad): “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

What are you most excited about in the Philadelphia area and region?

Philadelphia has always been and continues to be a city steeped in possibility.  It has so much work to do and for developers interested in exploring what it means to build truly sustainable communities, Philly allows-for, in fact welcomes that kind of experimentation.

As a ULI PHL Awards nominee, what makes you most proud of your project?

We are most proud that we have been able to both sustain ourselves in the eighteen-year, 3-phase period that it took to complete Capital Flats, but also that we have pushed ourselves in those years to become more critical, more responsible and more efficient at making well-designed, high-performance communities experienced by others as not just feasible but necessary.

Winners announced live June 13