The Los Angeles chapter of African American Real Estate Professionals and Project REAP have teamed up to provide scholarships for Project REAP’s online commercial real estate academy. The scholarship is in honor of William Yarbro, AAREP LA’s late president.

Yarbro died on Dec. 14, according to Kimberly Brown, managing director of asset services at Cushman & Wakefield. Brown succeeded Yarbro as president of AAREP LA.

Yarbro, known widely as Bill, began his real estate career in the 1980s in New York with CBRE, and he moved to the LA area in the early 1990s. Most recently, Yarbro was working as the commercial director at Keller William Commercial, based in the firm's Inglewood office.

He was tasked with creating KW's commercial platform at a time when South LA and Inglewood were starting to see an increase in interest and investment, Brown told Bisnow.

The AAREP LA scholarship will help BIPOC applicants from LA cover the tuition costs to attend the ULI/REAP Online Academy, Project REAP Chairman Lamont Blackstone told Bisnow via email. The online course, created in partnership with the Urban Land Institute, is an eight-week collection of classes and seminars providing a foundational commercial real estate education that is led by CRE experts. It costs about $800.

Yarbro was the older brother of Eric Yarbro, a New York-based broker with Colliers and a board member for Project REAP, who died in 2020.

The brothers "were outstanding individuals and professionals and vigorous advocates for diversity in our industry," Savills North America CEO and Chairman Mitch Rudin told Bisnow in an emailed statement. "We and others will continue the work and look for ways to honor Bill’s and Eric’s memories."

Partnering with Project REAP and establishing a scholarship seemed like a fitting way to honor Yarbro’s work, Brown said.

“Bill’s legacy was all about mentoring next-generation professionals in the business,” Brown said.