Michael Hoban

Michael Hoban is a Boston-based commercial real estate and AEC writer and founder and principal of Hoban Communications. Contact him at [email protected].

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Development and Construction

Innovation Districts & Corridors

Office Landlords Increase Focus on Enhanced Workplace Experience to Retain Tenants

A sea change is taking place in the way companies use office space design, amenities, and location to attract the most talented employees to their firms. Speaking at a ULI Boston event in May, panelists said that while lease flexibility is key to attracting desirable tenants, so is the user experience of the building itself.

May 21, 2018

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Michael Hoban

Finance & Investment

Finance – Capital Markets

Middle-Income Renters See Persistent Housing Cost Burdens

While the latest Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) report on the state of rental housing in the United States. shows some positive signs for inventory, the overall trend persists that low- to moderate-income renters face significant cost burdens in most markets.

January 9, 2018

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Michael Hoban

Design and Planning

ULI’s Advisory Services Examines Impact of Boston North–South Rail Link

ULI Advisory Services was asked to examine how the construction of an underground rail line linking North Station to South Station in downtown Boston could help alleviate transportation and housing woes, while unlocking development potential.

October 19, 2017

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Michael Hoban

Development and Construction

Office - Buildings

From Mill City to Innovation Hub: Relocating a Global Headquarters Outside Boston

Lowell, Massachusetts, received a major boost in ongoing efforts to transform into a center of innovation when Kronos—a homegrown Massachusetts workforce management software and services company—decided to relocate its global headquarters, taking a half-million square feet (46,500 sq m) close to the city’s revitalized downtown.

September 20, 2017

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Michael Hoban

Design and Planning

Urban Design

Embracing Smarter Cities in India and South Korea

Technological innovations are affecting nearly every facet of how societies function, but it is the corresponding evolution of human behavior—not the technology itself—that is driving how the next generation of cities around the globe is being built. That was the general feeling of a panel of large-scale developers—veritable city builders—assembled at the World Real Estate Forum by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate.

September 5, 2017

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Michael Hoban

Economy, Market & Trends

Development and Construction

Drawing Employers to Tap Boston’s Well-Educated Talent Pool

In a survey released in January by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate, Boston ranked third in desirability by foreign investors among U.S. cities (behind New York and Los Angeles). ULI Boston/New England recently hosted a program in which panelists discussed the thought processes of the leadership of the companies and investors who are wagering heavily on the continued success of the region.

April 24, 2017

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Michael Hoban

In Depth

Urban and Regional Planning

Rethinking Public Housing in Mexico

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design recently released a report examining how urban planning and design interventions can help improve housing and urban development practice in Mexico, including densifying existing population centers with infill development and retrofitting infrastructure and services in areas where existing homes have been abandoned.

January 23, 2017

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Michael Hoban

https://urbanland.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/07/Fenway-in-Boston-300x200-300x200.jpg

Property Types

Finance – Asset and Portfolio Management

New ULI Boston Report: Lack of Options for Middle-Income Households Jeopardizes Growth

A new report published by ULI Boston/New England sheds light on the shrinking middle-class in the Greater Boston region due in part to the lack of affordable housing options for middle-income households.

September 28, 2016

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Michael Hoban

Development and Construction

Creative Placemaking’s Positive Impact on Community Development

“Creative placemaking” can mean different things to different stakeholders, but ULI’s recent Housing Opportunity 2016 conference offered participants some very different strategies as to how to incorporate the concept into their own projects.

May 31, 2016

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Michael Hoban

Development and Construction

Residential

Many Suburbs Dodging Issue of Affordable Housing

With the trend toward urbanization increasingly pricing families out of housing in cities, one solution to the problem would be to simply construct more affordable multifamily housing stock in the suburbs.

May 31, 2016

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Michael Hoban

Economy, Market & Trends

Residential

Regulatory Environment One of Many Impediments to More Homeownership

Panelists at the recent ULI Housing Opportunity Conference discussed the impediments to low- to moderate-income wage earners achieving homeownership, saying that most large lenders and many regional and smaller lenders have lost their ability to originate layered mortgages, due to the increased complexity of the new regulatory environment.

May 31, 2016

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Michael Hoban

Development and Construction

Public/Private Partnerships

Bridging the Digital Divide for Low-Income Residents

Speaking at the recent ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, Rick Haughey, vice president of industry technology initiatives at the Washington, D.C.–based National Multifamily Housing Council, likened the wiring of the United States to the internet to the early development of the nation’s highways, but as a cautionary tale, creating unintended winners and losers in the process.

May 31, 2016

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Michael Hoban

Urban Land Contributors