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A survey of ULI members suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in commercial building management and operational changes that make occupants’ health and wellness a top priority, according to participants in a recent webinar hosted by the Institute’s Building Healthy Places Initiative.

The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced 16 finalists for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Awards, which honor exemplary developments that ensure housing affordability for people with a range of incomes. The award recognizes efforts by the development community to increase the supply of housing affordable to households earning less than 120 percent of the area median income.

Data analytics shines as the rising star of property technology (proptech) in the real estate industry, according to a report released by ULI and international law firm Goodwin Procter.

Affordable and workforce housing policies and programs put in place by the governments of Alexandria, Virginia; Houston; and Minneapolis have been selected as finalists for the 2021 ULI Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award. The annual award, presented by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, recognizes innovative ways the public sector is addressing the nation’s affordable housing crisis.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: The dramatic increase in online shopping in the United States has only further increased the appetite for properties close to population centers.

Redeveloping an underused tropical airport with biophilic and sustainable design features.

Faron A. Hill, president of Peregrine Oak, was named chair of the ULI Foundation in July. Hill has been a member of the Institute since 2004 and has served in various leadership roles within the organization. He currently serves on the Global Board of Directors, as a ULI Governing Trustee, and within the Technology and Real Estate Product Council Leadership. He succeeds Douglas D. Abbey as ULI Foundation chair.

“Atrium quads” can provide private, secure, spacious, flexible, single-family urban living at densities comparable to those provided by garden apartments.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: Since 1997, Pacoima Beautiful has worked with the community to reclaim open areas and create beautiful recreational spaces throughout the historic Los Angeles neighborhood. One of its first completed projects, the Bradley Plaza Green Alley, transforms an underused alleyway into a green public space and reimagines how alleys can be repurposed to best serve the communities in which they are situated.

Incoming Global Chair Peter Ballon shares why he first got involved in ULI and what he sees as the Institute’s top priorities for his two-year term.

A new ULI Chicago report seeks to focus the attention of policymakers on issues stemming from decades of disinvestment. The city needs to work long term on addressing racism, promoting diversity in housing, increasing jobs citywide, and investing in public works.

Adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change have remained top priorities in Southeast Florida, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has tested other aspects of community resilience, said public-sector leaders participating in a recent ULI webinar hosted by ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean.

Two ULI members highlight the opportunity for Boise, Idaho, embracing the future as one of the fastest-growing U.S. communities.

ULI Member–Only Content: When first opened, City Center Square—also home to an indoor shopping mall and food court—was one of downtown Kansas City’s standout office towers. But after a half century, the building began to show its age, changing hands at 40 percent occupancy and the food court was down to just two vendors.

The Summer 2021 issue of Urban Land is now available for ULI members. The cover topic is “Airport Connections: Development Ties Travel, Logistics, and Cyberspace.”

According to an annual survey by RCLCO, the top-selling U.S. master-planned community so far in 2021 is Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota, Florida, with 1,535 sales through June, 83 percent ahead of last year’s pace. Home sales in the nation’s top 50 communities exceeded expectations in the first half of 2021, with a pace that indicates the potential for a 12 percent increase at year’s end compared with 2020.

Five outstanding real estate projects from across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region have been announced as recipients of the 2021 ULI Europe Awards for Excellence. The winners, each of which demonstrates a comprehensive level of quality and a forward-looking approach to development and design, include two projects in the United Kingdom and one each in Germany, Belgium, and Portugal.

Communities know what they need. Two ULI members share how their firm uses community engagement to ensure that a project will contribute to the betterment of an existing community rather than its displacement.

Five ULI members share their perspectives on the importance of real estate industry support for parks and their own experiences with championing parks.

Khoo Teng Chye, who is on the faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore, has been appointed chair of ULI Asia Pacific. Khoo, a fellow and former executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities, began his three-year term in July, succeeding Nicholas Brooke, chairman of Professional Property Services Limited in Hong Kong.

Five internationally renowned real estate industry leaders have joined ULI’s Global Board of Directors, and 34 additional industry luminaries have been added to the roster of the Institute’s Global Governing Trustees. Both the Global Board members and Global Governing Trustees will serve on a voluntary basis beginning in July.

There is a 90 percent chance that a home will be destroyed if an ember ignites on the building during a wildfire, according to post-fire investigations conducted by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS). IBHS leaders demonstrated how resilient building materials and landscape methods can avert damage, during a live fire demonstration during a ULI webinar hosted for 10 district councils in June.

Peter Ballon, global head of real estate for CPP Investments, has been appointed the new ULI global chair. Ballon will serve on a voluntary basis for a two-year term and will provide member leadership as the Institute focuses on three new global mission priorities: decarbonization, education, and housing.

This August, if things go as planned, 145 new apartments for formerly homeless adults will open in San Francisco, one of the country’s most expensive housing markets.

The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, may not fit the traditional notion of a historic U.S. building, but in a classic case of “function over form,” its renovation will provide a vital cornerstone in the redevelopment of the downtown.

The single-family rental (SFR) market is seeing a dramatic increase in interest and growth, with changes brought on by COVID-19 emphasizing the need for a broader diversity of rental housing, according to a report prepared jointly by ULI and RCLCO.

Ten bridges for walkers and bicyclists creatively span waterways, roads, and railway tracks.

A group of renowned urban planning and real estate experts representing ULI will be making recommendations this week to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, on creating safe, sustainable housing for workers who are engaged full time in employment or training, focusing specifically on the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver—which is a unique challenge unto itself that has only intensified as a result of the global pandemic.

ULI has launched a first-of-its-kind central resource cataloging innovative parking policy reforms intended to promote more efficient use of land and creation of healthier neighborhoods.

The pandemic has exposed major gaps in commercial real estate’s practice concerning what people need, how people work, and how real estate functions in communities. A ULI member makes a clarion call for change in asset management.