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In a world increasingly driven by environmental concerns and economic realities, the movement for sustainable commercial real estate has only gained momentum, despite shifting political tides.

A professional self-certification program could dramatically boost the recovery effort

More than a century ago, the Baltimore waterfront was a working harbor. After a massive 1970s redevelopment that turned the area into the centerpiece of Baltimore’s tourism industry, the American Institute of Architects called it “one of the supreme achievements of large-scale urban design and development in U.S. history.” Yet it became insolvent in 2019. Key lessons learned here can prevent this cycle from repeating as we envision what the next 100 years might hold for the center of Charm City.

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the tragic bombing in downtown Oklahoma City finds the city itself experiencing nothing short of an amazing urban renaissance, after having pivoted from a suburban focus to a vibrant celebration of its central business district.

A redevelopment plan for a former industrial site in Cleveland presented by a team of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology students has taken top honors in the 23rd annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. This year’s competition asked students for proposals to create a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income area on a former industrial site in on Cleveland’s East Side.

Operationalizing ULI’s Net Zero Mission Priority

Experts suggest more comprehensive soil testing to ensure wildfire victims can safely return home

Husband and wife architectural team Hans and Torrey Butzer were living in Berlin, Germany, in late 1996 when a contest in Progressive Architecture magazine caught their attention. The competition called for designing a memorial to the victims of the tragic bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

Existing properties get makeovers to provide sustainable options for vulnerable populations

A city renowned for its vibrant culture and sweeping coastal skyscrapers, Miami set the stage for this year’s ULI Health Leaders Network Introductory Forum. Spanning the course of three days, Cohort 8 learned from local practitioners and explored the various ways in which the city marries real estate and land use with health and social equity. The Health Leaders toured historical and contemporary neighborhoods, provoking thoughtful discussion on how Miami development compared to their own local contexts.

By repurposing an underutilized hotel as student housing, San José State University ignites campus life and fuels a downtown resurgence

Helping Boulder County rebuild and strengthen after the Marshall Fire

Real estate professionals—from developers to investors—may need to re-evaluate underwriting assumptions and growth expectations.

TeamLHBK from the University of Cambridge in the UK has been named the winner of the sixth annual ULI Hines Student Competition—Europe.

Deal-making has lately proved to be tough sledding for the commercial real estate industry. Although 2024 brought a welcome rise off the bottom in year-over-year sales, total sales still came in at the second-lowest level since 2013. The latest data from MSCI Real Assets shows $438 trillion in 12-month trailing sales volume through February, a 15 percent increase on a year-over-year basis.

When Denver’s Stapleton International Airport closed in the mid-1990s, community leaders saw a chance to create a new, 4,700-acre (1,900 ha) community just six miles east of downtown. The project’s original developer, Forest City Stapleton (sold to Brookfield Properties in 2018), kicked off an urban transformation that is now nearing completion 25 years later. Known for extensive resilience strategies to reduce the effects of drought, flooding, and extreme heat, Central Park’s 12 neighborhoods are home to nearly 35,000 residents, with 60 parks as well as extensive pedestrian and bicycle trails.

The search for new growth and potential out-performance is shifting real estate allocations toward niche sectors such as cold storage, medical office, single-family rentals (SFR), and senior housing.

Phase 2 of the Willets Point redevelopment project is transforming an industrial part of Queens that once-inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “valley of ashes” in The Great Gatsby in 1925. A century later, Queens Development Group—a joint venture between Related Companies, Sterling Equities, and New York City Football Club—is converting 23 acres (9.3 ha) of underutilized land into a $3 billion mixed-use community.

With a rapidly expanding market, navigating the sea of financing mechanisms is a challenge. These are more than just funding sources. They are strategic tools that channel capital into sustainable projects while also managing environmental risks and delivering financial returns.

In January 2025, the Holcim Foundation played host to a second Global Fellowship—this time for Latin America—in Mexico City. The immersive two-week program occurred in collaboration with UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and focused on sustainable construction rooted in the social, environmental, and political realities of the region. The Fellowship is part of the Holcim Foundation’s global initiatives to support next-generation practitioners in the built environment.

Los Angeles-based impact fund manager SDS Capital Group has launched a new capital platform—SDS Impact Debt (SDSID)—that aims to bring much needed, low-cost debt to the affordable housing market. It is an asset-backed model that offers below-market financing (both permanent and construction) for affordable housing projects—and is potentially scalable across the U.S.

Despite the headwinds to rebuilding quickly and efficiently, just after the worst of the Los Angeles fires, ULI Los Angeles joined UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate and the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate to shape a response plan, created in just six weeks.

In 2014, a ULI Advisory Service panel made recommendations about the future use and preservation of Houston’s Astrodome, among the first indoor sports facilities in the world.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is experiencing increased flooding of local streets, even without major rain events or high winds, and residents are demanding answers. While many are calling on the city to elevate certain streets above the floodplain, ULI experts caution this is the least desirable solution because it can have severe negative consequences on nearby homes and businesses.

Within days of the fires, the three institutions formed a Rebuild Advisory Committee. The Project Recovery report, produced by about 100 leading experts in land use, urban planning, and economic development, offers in-depth technical analysis and actionable recommendations to accelerate recovery and build long-term resilience in communities.

The recent ULI Carolinas Conference in Charleston offered a glimpse into groundbreaking projects transforming the urban landscapes of North and South Carolina, with developers delivering rapid-fire presentations during the high-energy Crane Watch session. Each presenter shared the vision, challenges, and impacts their projects promise for communities across the Carolinas.

As student housing needs evolve, developers are rethinking design, creating dynamic, experience-driven communities that promote connection and well-being.

ULI Europe is calling for innovators from across the built environment and technology to submit groundbreaking solutions to tackle the dual crises of housing affordability and decarbonization of the built environment, in the ULI PropTech Innovation Challenge (PIC) 2025.

The June 1982 issue of Urban Land. Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, Hamtramck Mayor Robert Kozaren, and General Motors Chairman Roger Smith pose before the remains of Chrysler’s former Dodge Main plant at a formal project groundbreaking in May 1981.

When Ballantyne first emerged out of North Carolina farmland, more than 30 years ago, the original developers of this master-planned project already had a concrete vision in mind for its future: evolution. The development team intrinsically understood that, as Ballantyne—an affluent community nestled in south Charlotte—would expand beyond its farmland roots, the project would need to adapt to meet the needs of a more diverse and changing demographic.