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Today’s young professionals with discretionary income are asking for deeper engagement with their surroundings, a greater sense of ownership, and fewer barriers between work and play, connecting on a personal and emotional level with their environment. Panelists speaking at ULI’s 2018 Carolinas Meeting in February discussed what that might mean for the marketing and design of retail, office, and residential projects.

A 100,000-square-foot (9,300 sq m) project in an emerging transit district in Boulder, Colorado, is making the business case for net-zero-energy (NZE) multitenant leased office buildings, including lower operating costs, higher profits, reduced carbon emissions, better recruitment and retention for tenants, and happier, healthier, and more productive employees. The new $40 million Boulder Commons, a mixed-use office/restaurant/retail project in two adjacent buildings, is one of the largest NZE multitenant commercial buildings in the United States, according to New Buildings Institute (NBI) data.

California lost 138,000 people to domestic migration in the 12 months ended in July 2017, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, with most of those departing being lower- and middle-income workers destined for Arizona, Texas, or Nevada. At a recent ULI San Diego/Tijuana event, land use experts discussed what is being done at the local, state, and federal levels to ease the cost of housing in California’s populous coastal areas.

A redevelopment plan for a Toronto site presented by a team from Cornell University has taken top honors in the 2018 ULI Hines Student Competition.

An expansive sports and entertainment district—with new residential space—is helping revitalize downtown Detroit.

At a recent event hosted by ULI Washington, panelists discussed how U.S. and Chinese companies are continuing to work together. After record levels of U.S. investment from China in 2016, new controls on capital outflow and investors’ changing attitudes have slowed inflows, while domestic development in China has also shifted.

The growing popularity of online grocery shopping could result in demand for up to 35 million square feet (3.25 million sq m) of U.S. cold-storage space shifting from retail stores to warehouses and distribution centers within the next seven years, according to a report from CBRE.

Urbanizing cities of the U.S. Southeast, such as Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina, are facing the trade-offs of continued growth. Speaking at the 2018 ULI Carolinas Meeting, the mayors of those three cities discussed how and where their cities invest to attract job growth, while attempting to avoid displacement of longtime residents.

Strong economic fundamentals, a favorable regulatory environment, and plenty of capital to deploy bode well for real estate investments, acquisitions, and development in 2018.

A new report from the Urban Land Institute’s Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance outlines ten fundamental principles for building resilient cities and regions that successfully anticipate, respond to, and recover from both immediate shocks such as hurricanes and other extreme weather events and long-term stresses such as sea-level rise, poverty, and declining population.

As part of ULI’s 10-Minute Walk campaign, a ULI Advisory Services panel presented recommendations on a proposed land bridge in St. Paul—a project that is both a physical and symbolic connection for the Rondo neighborhood.

Understanding how and why groundbreaking multifamily communities are securing the financial commitments required to become reality is an important first step in appreciating how Detroit’s economic and development landscape evolves throughout the course of an accelerating growth cycle.

“Real estate development is a high-stakes gamble,” said Michael Maher of the WestEdge Foundation. Maher joined five other developers in discussing their current projects at the ULI Carolinas Meeting in Greenville, South Carolina.

The Waterfront Alliance, an organization encompassing hundreds of groups that have as their goal improving over 700 miles of shoreline in the New York/New Jersey area, has developed the Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG) for real estate projects and sites. WEDG launched the nationally applicable version of the rating system in March after initially piloting a New York–specific set of guidelines. A small number of real estate projects and parks in New York City have been certified under the guidelines, including the Domino Sugar factory site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is being redeveloped by Two Trees, and both Brooklyn Bridge Park and Greenpoint Landing.

ULI Life Trustee Frederick Kober, chairman of the board of the Christopher Companies, passed away on March 17, 2018, in Los Gatos, California, following a lengthy illness. He was 80. Kober, who joined ULI in 1970, was named a life trustee in 2005, a recognition reserved for the Institute’s most dedicated and respected members, and bestowed to only 15 members in ULI’s 82-year history.

Integrated or mixed-use developments bring multiple uses and amenities—residential, office, retail, and others—in one convenient space. Singapore’s aging population has also nudged developers to design spaces that emphasize accessibility and convenience for the city-state’s growing number of seniors.

In early March, the city of San Antonio celebrated the opening of a new park. Named Confluence Park, it sits on about 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) where two major rivers meet. The park—a former construction storage yard—was ten years in the making, costing about $13 million.

Gdynia, a small port city on the Bay of Gdańsk in Poland, is looking to reinvent itself. Gdynia boasts some of the happiest citizens in Poland, but its population is in decline. To help the city with its development strategy for the site, a panel of ULI members and urban experts convened in Gdynia in late February.

In Detroit, as in many cities across the United States, a distinctive type of open space—the urban garden—has emerged as another type of civic asset.

While commercial real estate investors generally take a positive view on coworking, maintaining a balance of traditional and coworking space in a building is critical when it comes to creating long-term capital value. According to a CBRE survey, investors say that a coworking occupancy of a third of the space or less, with a qualified operator, supports a healthy capital value.

An excerpt from the new book Suburban Remix: Creating the Next Generation of Urban Places, written by Jason Beske and David Dixon.

E-commerce has finally arrived in Singapore in a big way. Amazon has appeared on the island’s shores, joining local etailers like Zalora and RedMart, and with meal delivery apps such as Deliveroo, FoodPanda, and UberEats, restaurant-grade food can come straight to your door. Nonetheless, the pipeline for brick-and-mortar retail remains strong, with a total of 509,000 square meters (5.5 million sq ft) of retail space of projects in the pipeline.

James Rouse’s visionary development is 50 years old. The process of urbanizing its town center may create a model for other suburban developments.

Speaking at a ULI Minnesota event, Kevin Cavenaugh, owner of Portland-based Guerrilla Development, said bigger is not necessarily better, and oftentimes it is worse, in terms of the complexity and risk.

In 2017, California passed the first net-zero building code in the United States (for new residential construction by 2020). New York City; Washington, D.C.; and other cities have made net-zero building commitments as well, including both new and existing buildings. While a perception remains that achieving net zero is too costly for most residential and office development, a few pioneering development companies are figuring out how to deliver net-zero and net-zero-ready projects with a high net-present value at scale.

Urban planners and technology experts are hard at work bringing “smart city” technology—autonomous transportation, digital sensors, smart grids, and, yes, artificial intelligence—to a city near you. These were among the takeaways from a panel discussion at the 2018 ULI Carolinas Meeting in Greenville, South Carolina.

Sellers of commercial real estate in today’s hypercompetitive market are focused on a number of objectives, including maximizing sales prices and ensuring that a selected buyer will close a transaction. On the other hand, prospective buyers are looking for any competitive advantage that will result in a successful acquisition. New research quantifies the effect of trusted relationships—and the price of doubt.

Thoughtful placemaking is fundamental to the success of any economically and socially viable city. Detroit’s downtown parks are both public assets and important attractions throughout each of Michigan’s four seasons.

Like many areas of the United States, California is facing a housing affordability crisis in its most populous area, and the San Francisco Bay area is ground zero, with sky-high rents and housing prices. To help address the issue, ULI San Francisco created the Housing the Bay initiative in early 2017. Through research, events, and workshops, the initiative aims to explore the underlying causes of the Bay Area’s high housing costs and inadequate housing supply and propose solutions.

To meet the evolving expectations of today’s travelers, new hotels are being infused with active, social spaces that encourage interaction between guests, offer unique experiences with local flavor, and provide healthy lifestyle amenities, said experts speaking at a ULI San Diego/Tijuana event.