After years of planning, the first phase of one of Washington, D.C.’s most ambitious projects, the Wharf, opened in October. The Wharf is but one of the ambitious real estate developments planned, under construction, or recently completed along waterfronts in America’s Mid-Atlantic region, including D.C., Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
The Southeast region continues to generate steady gains in commercial real estate performance as positive employment momentum converges with generally limited development pipelines.
The first 100 days of the new U.S. administration has been marked by uncertainty and ambiguity—and while foreign real estate investors are concerned, they still believe the United States is a good place to invest. But panelists speaking at the ULI Spring Meeting in Seattle said they are optimistic about reforms to FIRPTA and more investment in infrastructure.
Emerging technologies will bring major changes to the real estate industry, prompting questions that people will be pondering over the coming months and years. “We’ve got to restart our thinking about what we do,” said Paul Doherty, chief executive officer and president of Memphis-based the Digit Group, a leading provider of “smart city” solutions.
Developers of master-planned communities (MPCs) must prepare for the next generation of buyers who will be more sophisticated and more discerning because they will come from urban environments, attendees were told at the 2017 ULI Spring Meeting.
The mayors of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Anchorage, Alaska; and San Jose, California, spoke at a forum presented by the Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use in Seattle discussing their solutions for the issues of revitalization, equity, and resilience in cities.
In the Pacific Northwest, real estate development continues to be powered by a strong and expanding technology sector, where companies like Facebook are taking upward of 1 million square feet (93,000 sq m) of space in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, doubling its footprint in the city, while Google has leased several hundred thousand square feet of space nearby.
Real estate activity in America’s heartland is growing at a solid clip, driven by increases in employment, a recovering economy, and pent-up demand for new product.
