The city of Baltimore has approximately 13,000 abandoned houses and 20,000 vacant lots that create health, safety, and financial hazards for nearby properties. Although it might seem simple to fix and flip these homes, the math doesn’t easily compute.
In an era when the demand for attainable housing continues to outpace supply, sustainable workforce housing is a necessary and prudent investment decision based on three key market trends. Primarily, the demand for attainable housing is growing. Workforce rental housing is increasingly sought after, particularly given dwindling affordability and growing barriers to home ownership. Last but not least, generational demand contributes to the rise of sustainable multifamily housing.
The ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate is pleased to announce its two newest board members: Esther An and Collete English Dixon.
Retaining a spiritual identity while serving up a mix of uses to the greater neighborhood
Best Practices
The following projects include an underwater bicycle garage; a university parking structure that includes a gaming lounge and food hall; a surface lot reimagined as open space with parklike amenities; an underground cafeteria repurposed for cars; and parking decks wrapped in artistic, semitransparent enclosures that reflect local culture.
A one-two punch is hitting condo owners and associations in Florida, forcing some to sell to cash buyers at massive discounts or risk foreclosure. The setback could have national implications.
The winners of the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence become finalists for the 2024 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, competing against projects from the Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The awards are open to projects and programs in the ULI Americas region that are substantially complete, financially viable, and in stable operation. The program evaluates submissions on overall excellence, including achievements in marketplace acceptance, design, planning, technology, amenities, economic impact, management, community engagement, innovation, and sustainability, among others.
Industry Voices
Debra March, the two-time Mayor of Henderson, Nevada’s second-largest city, has been named as the chair of ULI Nevada for a two-year term. March will also speak about her leadership at the 2024 ULI Fall Meeting in Las Vegas.
Urban Land recently spoke to Mayor Carolyn Goodman about the revival of downtown Las Vegas and what has made change possible.
The history of Denver is closely intertwined with the South Platte River. From the city’s initial settlement along the riverbanks in 1858 to subsequent urbanization that altered its natural course, the South Platte has played a significant role in Denver’s evolution. For much of the 20th century, however, metropolitan development turned away from this vital waterway.
For many who live outside Southern California, the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles is remembered for the well-documented riots of 1965, a six-day period of civil unrest that brought 34 fatalities, numerous injuries, and widespread arrests.
St. Louis, long known as the Gateway to the West, is rapidly becoming the gateway to the region’s future. Diverse communities have begun working together to make the city a major hub for cutting-edge innovations in aerospace, agriculture, finance, transportation, biosciences, entertainment, and much more. The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership is dedicated to finding economic development partners who can help companies thrive in greater St. Louis, regardless of their size, and at the same time help those companies to deliver new opportunities into under resourced neighborhoods.
The opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI) today seem unlimited. During the early innings of this exciting new technology, the phrases generative AI and machine learning are often being used interchangeably. In the multifamily industry, practical applications of AI are primarily based on machine learning, a subset of AI that uses algorithms to learn automatically from big data to identify patterns and make intelligent predictions.
Capital Markets and Finance
Commercial real estate loans totaling almost $1.8 trillion are set to mature before the end of 2026, according to Trepp. One sign of the accompanying stress is the commercial mortgage–backed security (CMBS) special servicing rate, with its latest numbers inching up to 8.2 percent, the highest since June 2021.
In early April 2024, Small Change, an investment crowdfunding platform for real estate development with social impact, and Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund (BREIF) jointly announced an investment opportunity in a $430 million life sciences building under development by Related Beal. The property—at 22 Drydock Avenue, in Boston’s Seaport District—is slated to be the city’s first life sciences building to achieve LEED Platinum and net-zero carbon emissions.
In May, Barry Sternlicht capped investors’ ability to exit his $10 billion real estate fund—a strategic move to avoid a fire sale of properties at a less-than-ideal time. Sternlicht lowered the limit on monthly withdrawals from Starwood Real Estate Income Trust (SREIT). That limit, previously 2 percent, went to 0.33 percent of net asset value (NAV), the value of SREIT’s assets minus its debt.
On Thursday, CREW DC, AAREP DC, and ULI Washington delivered the third and final program in a series intended to demystify valuations and provide practical insights on negotiating equity and debt.
RXR CEO and Chairman Scott Rechler, in a recent ULI members-only webinar with ULI Foundation Chair Faron A. Hill, described the challenges and opportunities ahead as an epic, unavoidable storm. “That hurricane … eventually, it’s going to hit land,” Rechler warned. “The question is when it hits, how hard it hits, and where it hits the hardest.”
Members Only
The final day of the 2024 ULI Asia Pacific summit in Tokyo featured a capital markets panel with leaders from both European and North American funds, who shared their insights into the region’s real estate markets—and how those markets stack up against their global counterparts.
Since global central banks began hiking interest rates in 2022, Japan’s lower cost of capital has made it a magnet for global investors seeking deals in one of the very few major markets still offering positive yield spreads.
Philanthropy
Thomas W. Toomey, chairman and chief executive officer of UDR Inc., will become the new chair of the ULI Foundation on July 1, 2024. A longtime ULI member and chair of the ULI Global Board of Directors from 2017 to 2019, Toomey brings extensive leadership experience and a deep commitment to philanthropic support for ULI’s mission.
Gift extends Stacks’ long history of leadership in ULI, philanthropic support for community transformation, education, and health care
The ULI Foundation Honor Roll recognizes donors based upon their cumulative lifetime giving. The ULI Foundation’s recognition societies honor and thank members and friends who have committed to supporting the Urban Land Institute generously and consistently. Members of these societies enjoy several benefits, including invitations to member-exclusive events and ULI Foundation communications.