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Chicago’s Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Plan, published in June of this year and driven largely by the mayor’s office and the community collective Elevated Chicago, hopes to close some of the gaps created in the original 2013 ordinance.

The San Francisco-based Swig Company has announced that it has obtained WELL Health-Safety Ratings through the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) for the majority of its U.S. portfolio of multitenant office buildings. This means the WELL rating is now a feature in almost eight million square feet of office space in New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Environmental justice is increasingly recognized as a key lens for ensuring a more equitable built environment. This is the conclusion of a new interview-based publication from ULI, Environmental Justice and Real Estate: Perspectives from Leading Community-Based and Advocacy Organizations.

JLL’s 2021 Global Proptech Report identifies nearly 8,000 property technology companies around the world with a threefold increase over the past 10 years. But JLL is also betting on further growth in the space with with $100 venture capital fund of its own.

Eight new hotels are now under construction in Chicago’s central business district, totaling about 1,500 new rooms, according to the latest list from STR Group. Developers are also planning to start construction on more than a dozen other new hotel projects, totaling an additional 3,700 new rooms.

A redevelopment of a 1980s strip center in a suburban town programs urban-style mixed uses with 1,500 fewer parking spaces than would have been required without sharing.

The real estate industry can simultaneously combat inequality and boost property values by improving broadband access, according to a new ULI report. Broadband and Real Estate: Understanding the Opportunity, from the Institute’s Curtis Infrastructure Initiative, makes clear that high-speed internet is no longer a luxury but a necessity for participating in society and the economy.

This summer, ULI Los Angeles presented a webinar that convened panelists to discuss the value of integrating biodiversity into real estate through urban beekeeping. The speakers, who navigate the benefits and challenges of incorporating beehives into real estate properties, examined how hives can contribute to the growing movement of bees and other pollinators in urban settings.

With features such as mezzanine offices above warehouse spaces and shared-amenity areas in which people can exercise and socialize, developers are transforming the once-staid genre of industrial buildings by incorporating features comparable to those typically found in office and mixed-use projects, according to a recent ULI panel discussion. Panelists also described design changes made to facilitate the increasingly rapid movement of e-commerce goods and rooftop solar installations that can supply most of a building’s energy needs.

First launched in 2017, the podcast Leading Voices in Real Estate (LVRE) recently celebrated it’s 100th episode. The podcast is hosted by Terra Search managing partner and founder Matt Slepin and has featured many of ULI’s leaders including ULI CEO Ed Walter. Slepin recently hosted a two-part discussion of the challenges facing the commercial real estate industry tackling climate change.

At the 2021 ULI Fall Meeting in Chicago, attendees will have the chance to tour two new office towers and hear from their development teams about the measures taken to adapt to the new circumstances.

Life science investment volume is on a record pace in 2021, reaching $9 billion for the first half of 2021, according to 2021 Mid-Year Life Science Overview & Market Clusters, a new report by Newmark.

Ten airport designs enhance the travel experience and highlight their local and regional contexts.

For those fortunate enough to be able to work remotely, “workations” have emerged as a blend of remote work and leisure outside the confines of a home office. A workation in Japan is a remote work arrangement with elements of a retreat, a dose of nature, and perhaps a taste of small-town life mixed in.

Tampa’s city council approved a resolution for a community-wide transition to 100 percent clean, renewable electricity by 2035. Tampa is the 12th city in Florida to make this commitment.

Those who attend the 2021 ULI Fall Meeting in Chicago will have the opportunity to tour mixed-use development near Wrigley Field.

According to data provider Apptopia, mobile applications, such as SpotHero and ParkMobile, have now exceeded their January 2020 levels by 6.2 percent in terms of monthly average U.S. users.

Nine impressive developments from around the world have been selected as winners of the 2021 ULI Global Awards for Excellence. This year’s winners include three from North America, one from Europe, and five from the Asia Pacific region. Winning projects represent the highest standards of achievement in the land use profession.

In Furthering Fair Housing: Prospects for Racial Justice in America’s Neighborhoods(2021, Temple University Press), influential housing thought leaders delve into the history of the fair housing and community development movements that have worked to improve housing opportunity for nonwhite households and provide perspectives on potential pathways forward.

After more than four years of planning and construction, operations have begun at the Amazon Air Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. This $1.5 billion investment in Northern Kentucky will eventually create thousands of jobs for people from various backgrounds, including load planning, management of package sortation, and robotics technology.

In any industry, large-scale projects tend to draw more attention. However, there is also a lot to be said for building small, said Jim Heid, founder of Urban Green, and also a founding partner of CraftWork, a coworking and community hub in Healdsburg, California, speaking during a recent ULI webinar.

The Dodge Momentum Index fell to 155.8 in July, a 6 percent decline from the revised June reading of 164.9. The index, issued by Dodge Data and Analytics, is a monthly measure of the initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which has been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. The two components of the index fell in July—commercial planning by 3 percent and institutional planning by 9 percent.

The latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms that the last five years have been the hottest since 1850, and that “it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land.” As the built environment accounts for nearly 40 percent of annual global carbon emissions, action needs to be taken.

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi recognized teams from ‘Iolani School and Kalani High School for taking first and third place, respectively, in the ULI UrbanPlan National Championships. The competition was held virtually over Zoom in June with 12 student teams from across the United States participating. ‘Iolani, Kalani, and California’s Berkeley High advanced to the final round, and in a close competition, ‘Iolani won first place.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: What is coming for travel services, concessions, commercial development, and logistics?

A Chicago affordable housing provider is reducing energy cost and overhead by installing higher insulation levels and more efficient heating and cooling.

At a recent ULI webinar, panelists discussed the advantages of alternative construction technologies, including modular development, panelization, mass timber, and precast concrete. While not necessarily new to the construction industry, each of these technologies is becoming increasingly well known. The webinar was part of a series hosted by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing.

Twelve developments from across North America have been selected as winners of the 2021 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence. The winners include 10 from the United States and two from Canada.

Major airports have long been hubs for commercial real estate development. Increasingly, airport complexes are driving economic growth and business innovation as well.

In Jakarta, a city of more than 10 million people, housing affordability has become a major issue—one that likely cannot be solved by the public sector alone, said speakers at a ULI Asia Pacific webinar.