Archives
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07-01-10
Five leaders in residential real estate development discuss U.S. housing development trends: why smaller unit and lot sizes are becoming more common, which neighborhoods are holding value in the economic downturn, how demographic shifts are likely to influence the buyer and renter markets, how the public sector is working with the private sector to help keep planned developments alive, and how the recession has affected the movement toward incorporating sustainable design.
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07-01-10
Conservation development technologies have been around for decades, but only in the past few years have developers, conservation organizations, landowners, and local governments begun to understand the potential of these technologies to link land conservation with land development while providing meaningful protection of natural resources. In addition, ample evidence exists that shows homebuyers will pay premium prices to live next to nature, green space, and even certain types of agriculture.
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07-01-10
Though less clear, Transportation costs are second only to housing expenses in a typical family’s budget. But efforts to make transportation costs more transparent are underway. The ULI J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing, working with the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), has developed customizable housing and transportation calculators for three regions: Boston, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. These tools allow homebuyers and renters to enter assumptions about driving and commuting behavior into the calculator and compare transportation costs at different addresses. CNT is also developing a tool that will soon appear on online real estate listing sites in metropolitan areas nationwide, providing information about average transportation expenses for households in a given neighborhood.
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07-01-10
Two megatrends are currently shaping what will become the new normal after the prolonged period of recovery for the U.S. economy. The first is the rapid emergence of America’s metropolitan areas as the true centers of population and economic growth. For the first time in history, more people are living in urban areas throughout the world than in rural communities.
The second is a worldwide shift in the sources and flows of global capital, creating a new world of funding sources available to be configured in new ways toward new goals. The fluidity of global streams is becoming more pronounced and vast sums of capital are seeking stable, long-term returns.
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07-01-10
The real estate industry has reached a pivot point, one at which land use is as much or more about the management and redevelopment of existing space as it is about new development. This emphasis on rebuilding and reusing the old and obsolete illustrates how the “use of land” cited in ULI’s mission encompasses existing buildings and what happens in them, how they are operated, and how they perform over time. Nowhere was this more apparent than at ULI’s recent forum on financing tools for energy-saving retrofits, held in New York City in early June.
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07-01-10
When Michael Maples, principal and chief executive officer of Trumark Homes, was asked at a recent real estate conference about his company’s competitive advantage, the answer was unexpected. “We don’t know what we’re doing,” he said. Not that Maples and his partner Gregg Nelson are new to the business; their residential development firm has been active in California since 1993. But it was not until two years ago that they started a homebuilding operation, and what Maples was saying is that they bring a fresh perspective to the industry.
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07-01-10
Bus Rapid Transit Areas Undergoing Innovation
The National Bus Rapid Transit Institute identified seven elements as those undergoing innovation in bus rapid transit.
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06-01-10
In the current recession, thousands of stores have been shuttered, new projects have been shelved, rents have been pared, property values have cratered, and retail workers have been sent packing in legions: more than a half million lost their jobs alone in 2008. But as the dust begins to settle and the rolling metal curtains are peeled back for a new sales day, retail is reemerging as a different animal, one that is leaner and keener.
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06-01-10
With consumer confidence low and vacancy rates high, shopping centers across the globe face a challenging economic climate. Yet the current downturn also paves the way for renewals of existing centers. Departed anchors create opportunities for radical interventions. At the same time, municipalities are strongly motivated to provide economic incentives to help turn around declining malls and shape them to be more responsive to their communities. The following ten shopping centers, all completed in the last five years, offer new strategies for bringing cultural uses into shopping centers, examples of contemporary architectural design that responds to the particularities of the local context and population,creative applications of urban design principles, sensitive incorporation of new construction with historic buildings, as well as examples of navigation of the complexities of public/private partnerships to provide benefits neither sector could have supplied on its own.
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06-01-10
From an open-air shopping center in Guadalajara, Mexico, to a LEED Platinum–rated convention center in Vancouver, British Columbia, and from the 5 million-square-foot (465,000-sq-m) L.A. Live development in Los Angeles to the eight-unit, 72-foot- (22-m-) wide Thin Flats townhouse project in Philadelphia, this year’s Americas winners in the ULI Awards for Excellence program integrate solutions to environmental challenges as well as social and economic challenges.
The ten Americas award winners and one Heritage winner constitute a portfolio of projects that reflect a healthy balance among economic viability, ecological stewardship, and social equity, noted jury chair Marty Jones, president of Corcoran Jennison Companies in Boston. “Many of these developments involve environmentally sustainable features, public/private partnerships, and innovative financing. All have proven to be financially successful in their industry class while enhancing and strengthening the surrounding community.”