A New Chair for Pasadena’s Chamber, With a Bullish Read on a City at a Crossroads

For more than four decades, Bill Ukropina has measured Pasadena in square footage — the office floors, retail frontage and industrial space that change hands across the city. When he looks at the city now, roughly a year and a half after the Eaton Fire tore through the area, he sees something he calls a “rebirth,” and he counts it the way a commercial broker would: in housing starts, construction crews and jobs.

On Friday, June 26, 2026, Ukropina will be installed as board chair of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association — a 138-year-old organization that represents more than 1,150 member businesses — at its annual Inaugural Gala at the Langham Huntington Hotel. In an interview, he laid out a bullish read on the local economy and an agenda built around driving revenue to the chamber’s members, in his first extensive public comments since the organization announced his selection.

The demand to lease and buy commercial property in Pasadena, he said, is “brisk.” He attributed that to the city’s amenities and its national and international name recognition, pointing to Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Rose Bowl and the Rose Parade. “There are many companies that want to be in Pasadena,” Ukropina said, citing both its amenities and its name recognition.

Heading into the second half of 2026, he said, residential developers are pressing to build mixed-use projects — retail on the ground floor, housing above — while “the brilliant people” coming out of Caltech to develop startups are generating fresh demand. Large blocks of vacant office space, he added, represent “a tremendous opportunity for companies to grow and expand.”

That optimism is striking against the backdrop he inherits. The Eaton Fire, which ignited on January 7, 2025, destroyed 9,418 structures and burned more than 14,000 acres, with the heaviest damage in neighboring Altadena, according to figures cited in the chamber’s Pasadena Perspectives magazine. Ukropina said Pasadena itself lost a little more than 200 structures.

“The fire had a devastating short-term effect on all the residents of Pasadena,” he said. He recalled a wave of volunteers who came together in the immediate aftermath, helping displaced residents with everything from housing to bottled water. But he described an economy that has since rebounded on the strength of reconstruction. 

“We’ve seen a tremendous rebirth,” he said. “We’ve seen housing starting being built and some just about finishing. We’ve seen a lot of jobs come to Pasadena because of all the rebuilding efforts” — particularly, he noted, in construction. As devastating as the fire was, he said, the region is now seeing “a huge rebirth of energy and business and, of course, jobs.”

In the Eaton Fire’s aftermath, the chamber extended free memberships to businesses in Altadena’s hardest-hit 91001 ZIP code, an initiative announced at the 2025 gala. Ukropina cast the move as a statement of the organization’s identity. It showed, he said, that the chamber is a “pro-business, nonpartisan organization” that was “right in the middle of assisting those affected by the fire.” He added: “It shows that we’re a community that cares about each other.”

As chair, Ukropina said, his priorities begin with the bottom line for members. He wants to help member businesses “drive more revenue” so they can hire, to grow the chamber’s membership, and to build closer ties among members so they “know each other better” and “support each other.” 

He also pledged to work with the City Council and the school board on education, safety and the broader business climate, with the aim of making Pasadena “a better overall place.”

Keeping the city competitive for both small businesses and major employers, he said, will work for the chamber and the city to give companies “a quicker way to grow” and to connect them with available resources. 

When prospective employers weigh relocating, he said, the chamber should be “proactive,” helping them lease or buy space — the work he has done in the private sector for more than 40 years at Coldwell Banker Commercial, where he leads the firm’s Pasadena office on South Lake Avenue.

Ukropina’s civic record reaches well beyond real estate. He has served on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission and on two municipal task forces — one on City Council and mayoral compensation, the other on sports fields — and has sat on the board of the Cancer Support Community. He twice served as president of the Pasadena American Little League and coached youth soccer for 11 years.

He framed that service as the heart of community life. “You meet the greatest people on volunteer boards,” he said, “because these people are working, they’re raising families, and they’re taking the time to make the community better.”

Ukropina will succeed the outgoing chair, Frank Girardot of BYD|RIDE. The June 26 gala, presented by Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will also recognize the chamber’s Corporate Citizens of the Year and award Bill Bogaard Scholarships — named for the former Pasadena mayor — to emancipated foster youth. 

The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception and silent auction in the Langham’s Viennese Ballroom, at 1401 South Oak Knoll Avenue, followed by dinner and the program at 7:30 p.m.