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Eighty-four professionals in real estate development, planning, design, engineering, finance, and health care from around the globe have been selected to participate in the fourth cohort of the ULI Health Leaders Network. Due to the unique circumstances resulting from the pandemic that have required this cohort to be virtual, program administrators have increased the number of health leaders accepted for Cohort 4, which has been split into two subcohorts for programming.

During the 2021 ULI Virtual Europe Conference in February, Marnix Galle, chairman of ULI Europe, sat down with Philippe Close, the mayor of Brussels, Belgium.

In recognition of Women’s History Month, ULI is highlighting people and projects that have worked to advance gender equity and parity in the real estate industry. The Institute’s commitment to addressing the industry’s gender gap is formally seen through the Women’s Leadership Initiative.

ULI has been working in collaboration with a select group of corporate members to produce a “roadmap” for social value measurement that identifies the obstacles, gaps, frameworks, and tools that are available to set targets, manage and measure social impact, and examine best practices already applied from across the real estate industry.

Four teams have been selected as the finalists for the 19th annual ULI Hines Student Competition, an event that challenges graduate students to devise a comprehensive design and development plan for a real site in an urban area. Finalists include a team from the Georgia Institute of Technology and one from the University of California, Berkeley. Finalists also include a combined team from Pennsylvania State University, the University of Houston, and Columbia University in the City of New York, in addition to a Toronto-based team from Ryerson University, York University, and the University of Toronto.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: In the closing session of the 2021 ULI Virtual Europe Conference in February, a panel considered the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic would have on cities in both the short term and the longer term.

Urban developers have become increasingly interested in building places with little or no dedicated parking spots. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, raising questions about the funding of public transit and safety. A new ULI report looks at micromobility’s value for cities and real estate.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: In an Oxford-style debate, two property experts locked horns virtually during the 2021 ULI Virtual Europe Conference in February on one of the most talked-about subjects of the past year—the future of the white-collar workplace. Once the pandemic has passed, will most office workers return to business as usual, working five days a week in proximity to colleagues? Or has the world changed forever, with most people working from home for at least a couple of days a week?

Though investor interest in the hospital sector was muted for most of 2020 in response to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and global travel, the lodging industry is poised to rebound in 2021, according to JLL Hotels & Hospitality’s annual Hotel Investment Outlook.

A ULI Sacramento task force is working to strengthen community engagement in an underserved, underinvested part of the city with the goal of advancing development.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: Owning retail space has been challenging since the Great Recession. You likely know the reasons why: overbuilding, the internet, rapacious private equity, too many lackluster tenants. You also know that every move you make—every breath you take—is recorded by your mobile phone. This latter circumstance has allowed a clever company to develop possibly the most useful tool for commercial real estate since Hewlett Packard introduced the HP-12C financial calculator in 1981.

The mayor of Paris is embracing the ville du quart d’heure—translated as 15-minute city—the first time that a leading politician in France’s largest city had backed the idea, particularly as a reelection strategy.

Northern Italy, one of the hardest-hit areas during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is poised to come out of the pandemic far stronger, with a greater emphasis on green space and social cohesion, said Pierfrancesco Maran, deputy mayor for urban planning, green areas, and agriculture of the municipality of Milan, speaking at the 2021 ULI Virtual Europe Conference.

A study by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that tenants who lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic may have already amassed $11 billion in rental arrears. Procedures for evictions and foreclosures may be failing the most vulnerable tenants and landlords.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: In an opening session of the 2021 ULI Europe Virtual Conference in February, experts said that many had been warning about the possibility of a global pandemic, but the lack of preparation and early detection added to its toll.

ULI has announced the two winners of the 2021 ULI European Leadership Awards as part of its ULI Virtual Europe Conference.

The Winter 2021 issue of Urban Landis now available for ULI members. The cover topic is “Real Tech: Technology gains speed as new needs arise.”

Speaking at the 2021 ULI Virtual Europe Conference in February, leading architect Norman Foster said that he remains optimistic about the future of cities.

As part of Black History Month, ULI is spotlighting some of the incredible work of our Black members, including Lisa Y. Gordon, president and CEO of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, who is responsible for advancing Atlanta Habitat’s mission to create affordable housing.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: What will the new post-COVID tech-enabled workplace look like? Experts and members of ULI’s European Technology and Real Estate Council discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic will reshape expectations, practices, and technologies in the long run; the changing relationship between building owners and tenants; the potential effects on providers of shared and flexible office environments; and other trends.

Collaborative efforts were celebrated at a Centre for Liveable Cities World Cities Summit Preview event on climate resilience in January, which explored how to accelerate cooperation between the public and private sectors.

A recent ULI panel of development professionals partnered with the city of Tampa, Florida, to advise on the city’s major initiative to increase the availability of attainable housing throughout the community.

As tenants prepare to return to their buildings on a more consistent basis, office reconfigurations and fitouts are top of mind. While updating spaces for less density and more social distancing, with more sensors and less recirculated air, owners and tenants have a prime opportunity to optimize their space for sustainability and energy performance, in addition to health and wellness, at the same time.

Monday marked the beginning of the 28-day-long celebration of Black History Month in the Americas. Established in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson as Negro History Week, the week of recognition was expanded and renamed Black History Month in the 1970s. Black History Month is officially celebrated during February in the United States and Canada and during October in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In the spirit of this month, we would like to highlight what we are doing to continue to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in both ULI as an organization and for the broader real estate industry as a whole.

According to data provider Zonda, the U.S. New Home Lot Supply Index came in at 63.5 for the third quarter of 2020, representing an 8.9 percent drop year over year. Hear more about trends in U.S. housing policy and development at the 2021 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference.

As a ULI member for over 30 years, I have had the privilege of seeing firsthand the power of ULI and the difference that our collective knowledge and expertise can make to our industry and our communities.

SPONSORED POST:The Residences at Pacific City is an award-winning, LEED Silver–certified, 516-home community developed by UDR and situated in a prime location off the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, California. It is one of over 20 UDR communities that have obtained sustainability certifications, and a portion of its development was funded through the capital raised in UDR’s initial Green Bond offering.

A new industry-led initiative by Tishman Speyer China, mindful MATERIALS, and GIGA is pushing for accelerated action on improving the transparency of building materials data, starting with embodied carbon.

ULI Europe has officially launched ULI Denmark, its 15th national council. Jesper Bo Hansen, head of corporate finance at Catella, will be the chair, serving a two-year term on a voluntary basis, and will be joined by an executive committee of local industry leaders.

ULI full member Christopher Coes has jointly published a multimedia essay through the Brookings Institution titled “The Great Real Estate Reset,” which cites the cyclical nature of the U.S. real estate industry as a whole and the opportunity to think differently in the year ahead given the current economic situation.