At the 2025 ULI Spring Meeting, John Cecilian Jr., CEO and co-founder of Cecilian Partners Inc., moderated a panel on the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation in the development of master-planned communities with Laura Cole, senior vice president of Lakewood Ranch and Fred Balda, president of Hillwood Communities.
(ULI/Deborah Myerson)
At the ULI Spring Meeting 2025 session “Mastering Innovation: Tech-Driven Transformation of Planned Communities,” two prominent community developers—Laura Cole, senior vice president at Lakewood Ranch, and Fred Balda, president of Hillwood Communities—discussed how digital tools and data are reshaping large-scale developments. Moderated by Cecilian Partners’ Philip Worland, the conversation highlighted the role of technology in revolutionizing both front-end and back-end operations in the master-planned community (MPC) sector.
A central theme throughout the session was the shift toward data-driven decision-making. At Lakewood Ranch, which spans 55 square miles (142 sq km) in southwest Florida, years of acquiring legacy communities had fragmented data across departments. Through a collaboration with Cecilian Partners, Lakewood Ranch was able to unify disparate information into a single platform—including buyer profiles, lot sales, builder performance, and accounting.“This real-time access lets us shift marketing dollars quickly,” Cole said. “For instance, in Q1 2024, the market shifted rapidly toward attached products like condos, which we identified through our data dashboards.”Using Tableau dashboards and integrated analytics, the team more easily managed the reallocation of marketing dollars, tracked absorption in real time, and adjusted builder engagement strategies.
“This transformation took about a year and required leadership buy-in, data-driven staff, and cross-departmental alignment,” Cole added.
Digital deliverables
Technology isn’t just behind the scenes. Increasingly, it’s embedded into the resident experience. Lakewood Ranch implemented a custom app—Blueprint—to consolidate lifestyle programming, club events, and amenity access. This tool not only streamlines operations but strengthens brand affinity, offering residents a sense of belonging and identity that extends beyond individual subdivisions.
“We’re now exploring a loyalty program to deepen community branding,” Cole explained. “Residents identify as being from Lakewood Ranch, not just a subdivision.”
This investment in lifestyle tools is paying off: homes near Lakewood Ranch’s town centers—also managed in-house—sell for hundreds of thousands more than comparable homes farther afield, reinforcing the town center as both an amenity and a marketing asset.
The Hillwood approach
While Lakewood Ranch demonstrates how to modernize legacy housing developments, Hillwood Communities illustrates the role of innovation from the ground up. With deep roots in the logistics and infrastructure-heavy AllianceTexas development, Hillwood frames innovation as a mindset. “Innovation—defined as curiosity—is one of our core values,” Balda said. “That means asking, how can we make this better for residents, builders, and our team?”
From pioneering fiber-connected communities in the early 2000s to integrating drone delivery pilots and 3D-printed housing in recent years, Hillwood views every stage of the development lifecycle as an opportunity for improvement. Its flagship Pecan Square community in Northlake, Texas, includes pre-wired smart homes, co-working hubs, Amazon package lockers, and a co-developed “Customer Blueprint” app. Notably, Hillwood also piloted autonomous vehicle and drone delivery systems within the community, leveraging its connection to the broader AllianceTexas mobility innovation zone.
“We moved our marketing budget from three percent digital to over 80 percent,” Balda said, “leveraging virtual tools to showcase home models before construction.”
Seamless front-end to back-end experiences
A key priority for both developers is building seamless customer journeys—what buyers experience on the front-end is tightly coupled with robust data systems on the back-end. Hillwood’s digital tools empower potential buyers to engage with the community digitally before visiting in person.
“We’re integrating customer-facing tools like Xplorer Maps and Customer Blueprint with back-end systems like land inventory and contract management through Cecilian’s platform,” Balda explained.
At the same time, tools like Autodesk and TraceAir have streamlined construction and development oversight. One of Hillwood’s more creative initiatives, Scrap-it, coordinates app-based construction waste pickup—an “Uber for trash,” according to Balda—reducing costs, improving efficiency, and enhancing resident satisfaction by dramatically reducing neighborhood clutter during buildout.
The combined effect of these technologies is a higher-quality resident experience and more efficient operations for developers and builders alike.
Ownership of town centers
Another key insight was Lakewood Ranch’s decision to retain ownership of its town centers. While many developers divest these assets for near-term returns, Lakewood Ranch recognized the long-term value of using town centers as marketing engines. “We also use tools like Placer.ai to track where visitors come from and assess the marketing ROI [return on investment] of events and locations,” Cole said.
With a combined total of about 400,000 square feet (37,161 sq m) of retail and 100 tenants, these town centers host more than 200 events annually. The centers also allow for dynamic tenant curation—informed by real-time performance dashboards and turnover modeling—enhancing their value as both placemakers and revenue generators.
Adopting technology
The speakers emphasized that successful digital transformation is not just about tools—it relies on qualified people. Rather than depending on IT to lead technology adoption, business units must drive and own these solutions. Cole stressed the need for cross-departmental champions, particularly from accounting and marketing.
“Post-COVID, digital tools are essential for adaptability,” she said. “But the human side—training your teams, supporting culture shifts—is just as vital as the technology itself. You need a staff that is data-driven and a leadership team willing to change how they do things.”
At Hillwood, this spirit of risk-taking is baked into the culture. “Technology has the potential to radically reduce costs, increase quality, and improve the resident experience,” Balda said. “You don’t have to bet the farm, but you do have to bet the cow.”
Policy implications for MPCs
As technology becomes increasingly central to master-planned community development, it presents significant policy challenges for local governments, regional planners, and state housing agencies. Innovative construction methods—such as 3D-printed homes, drone delivery infrastructure, and smart home requirements—may not fit within traditional permitting frameworks. Jurisdictions must adapt zoning, fire safety, and inspection codes to support new technologies without imposing unnecessary delays. Model ordinances that allow for experimental tech zones or performance-based codes could facilitate innovation while maintaining safety and quality standards. For example, Austin, Texas, amended permitting pathways to accommodate ICON’s 3D-printed homes.
Smart homes and digital amenities also require advanced infrastructure: high-speed broadband, reliable energy, and cellular connectivity. Local and regional planners must work closely with developers to ensure that MPCs have the digital infrastructure they need—and that it aligns with broader regional goals, such as digital equity. States can include broadband-ready certification as a condition for infrastructure grants in large-scale developments.
Many of the innovations described—such as dynamic town centers, co-working hubs, and smart removal of construction waste—align with sustainability and placemaking goals. Policymakers should consider tax incentives, impact fee reductions, or expedited review for developments that adopt technologies advancing energy efficiency, emissions reductions, or community cohesion. At the federal level, according to the panel, HUD’s PRO Housing Grant Program offers incentives for jurisdictions to streamline permitting for affordable and sustainable housing.
The panel also explained that as private developers build robust data systems to manage residents, amenities, and construction, there’s a growing opportunity—and need—for interoperability with public systems. Cities could benefit from anonymized data on mobility patterns, housing absorption, or utility usage. Public-private data partnerships should be developed with attention to privacy, equity, and transparency. Regional smart city initiatives could include formal data-sharing agreements with large-scale developers.
In closing, both Cole and Balda noted that many local governments lack the staff and technical expertise to evaluate and respond to these rapid innovations in MPC developments. They said hiring technologists or partnering with innovation labs would allow municipalities to better respond to—and collaborate with—forward-looking developers.
