Development and Construction
Explore Development and construction content featuring innovation in building practices, construction cost trends, financing strategies, sustainable and resilient approaches, and in-depth project case studies that connect technical insight with strategic thinking to support stronger decisions and better project outcomes.
Demand is surging for senior housing as America’s population ages, but supply continues to lag. That gap is one reason investors in ULI’s 2025 Emerging Trends report rated the sector second highest for the best risk-adjusted returns over the next three years. Supply and demand dynamics don’t tell the whole story, though: senior housing development tends to thrive at the upper end, where seniors with means can afford to live in a continuing care retirement community.
In the heart of London’s Covent Garden neighborhood, a complex of five Victorian-era structures—previously housing a seed merchant company, a brass and iron foundry, and a Nonconformist chapel, among other uses—have been restored and adapted into a single, cohesive office building with ground-floor retail and dining space. The three-year restoration preserved the property’s industrial heritage and provides flexibility to meet the needs of today’s workforce.
Recently, three new senior housing apartment towers opened in the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon.
10 museum buildings strengthen ties to communities and the public realm
Multifamily experts gathered at the University of Southern California to highlight where denser construction is creating affordability.
At ULI Chicago’s October gathering at the new 73-story 1000M apartment tower, located at 1000 S. Michigan Ave., key members of the building’s development, architecture and construction teams hosted a tour of the project and enlightened attendees with a panel discussion on the history behind the skyscraper’s signature cantilever.
“Investors are increasingly looking at airports as lucrative opportunities,” said Steve Forrer, chief investment officer at Aviation Facilities Management Company. “When you position an airport development correctly, it can draw in a wide range of businesses, from tech startups to established global firms,” he said.
The construction landscape has largely held steady across the United States and Canada.
As the Fed began a series of rate hikes in 2022, the apartment market went from one of frenzied growth and optimism to a market characterized by decline, be it declining sales volume, declining occupancy, or declining values. As we near year’s end, stability and even positive momentum have begun to take hold, and there is good reason to expect them to carry into 2025 with the return of large, open-ended funds and an improved debt environment.
Northern Mexico has experienced a significant expansion in the Mexican industrial real estate sector since its major decline from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, due, in part, to low-cost production in China. During the pandemic, that trend began to shift.
From iconic implosions to wellness retreats: Explore the massive transformation of the Las Vegas Strip into a premier destination for luxury living.
Amblebrook, an innovative retirement community in the historic setting of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was specifically designed to remedy this social disease. It shatters the mold of the conventional 55-plus community.
Retaining a spiritual identity while serving up a mix of uses to the greater neighborhood
On August 14, ULI New York and the Holcim Foundation hosted a sold-out event on “Decarbonization at Scale,” a topic that has never been more critical for the future of the built environment in North America.
After over two decades of planning, development, and construction, the Residences at Harvard Commons, a mixed-income housing development comprising 45 affordable apartments and 54 market-rate single-family homes, is nearing completion.
Debra March, the two-time Mayor of Henderson, Nevada’s second-largest city, has been named as the chair of ULI Nevada for a two-year term. March will also speak about her leadership at the 2024 ULI Fall Meeting in Las Vegas.
The National Retail Federation’s Hot 25 Retailers ranks the nation’s fastest-growing retail companies. Rankings are determined by increases in domestic sales between 2022 and 2023; all retail companies with global sales in excess of $2 billion, and key format leaders were eligible.
Las Vegas is betting on significant investment in public transportation to help generate thousands of new real estate developments along major city streets such as Maryland Parkway, one of the city’s most important corridors outside of the Las Vegas Strip.
Bringing a legacy of economic growth and urban core redevelopment, Mick Cornett partners with ULI to help cities enhance walkability and livability
Real estate investors recognize the need to incorporate physical climate risks—including wildfire, hurricanes, and excessive heat—into their business models as the prevalence and severity of extreme weather events increase. Climate-risk analytics tools have proliferated in recent years to help investors assess, price, and mitigate these physical climate risks. Investors have welcomed these tools but face challenges selecting the right provider—or providers—to meet their business needs.
The history of Denver is closely intertwined with the South Platte River. From the city’s initial settlement along the riverbanks in 1858 to subsequent urbanization that altered its natural course, the South Platte has played a significant role in Denver’s evolution. For much of the 20th century, however, metropolitan development turned away from this vital waterway.
St. Louis, long known as the Gateway to the West, is rapidly becoming the gateway to the region’s future. Diverse communities have begun working together to make the city a major hub for cutting-edge innovations in aerospace, agriculture, finance, transportation, biosciences, entertainment, and much more. The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership is dedicated to finding economic development partners who can help companies thrive in greater St. Louis, regardless of their size, and at the same time help those companies to deliver new opportunities into under resourced neighborhoods.
Nevada, long synonymous with tourism and entertainment, is rapidly transforming into a manufacturing powerhouse. Spearheaded by Tesla’s massive gigafactory, the state has become a magnet for EV production, battery manufacturing, and other industrial sectors. With strategic incentives, a business-friendly climate, and prime geographic location, Nevada is luring companies away from high-cost states like California. However, challenges such as water scarcity and federal land ownership must be addressed to sustain this burgeoning industry.
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Chicago has become one of the many major cities nationwide whose downtown office market has been negatively affected by the pandemic and the associated increase in remote work. To boost development in its downtown core, the city of Chicago recently announced that it will offer $150 million in subsidies to real estate developers. The move will help develop more than 1,000 apartments in four separate adaptive-use developments.
Supertall creates a “palpable energy” that speaks to New York’s resilience and the future of cities
A new wave of mid-career commercial real estate entrepreneurs is capitalizing on what some call “once-in-a-generation” opportunities to invest in distressed or otherwise discounted properties in today’s market—especially in the office sector. Nationwide, there’s been an uptick in new investment firms started by development and investment professionals with 10–25 years of industry experience—some of whom left major firms to do so. These firms aim to buy cheap offices and reposition them through leasing, capital improvements, or conversions to apartments.
Milan’s Olympic Village is being built now in preparation for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Developers and designers have high hopes for the complex’s third act as a hyper-sustainable, 1,700-bed student housing project and anchor for a new city park.
Twelve developments from across Asia have been selected as winners of the 2024 ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence, one of the real estate industry’s most prestigious honors. Announced at the 2024 ULI Asia Pacific Summit held in May in Tokyo, this year’s award winners include projects in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the Philippines. These winners will automatically qualify as nominees for the 2024 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, where they will compete against projects from North America and Europe.
As cities confront the housing crisis, they face intersecting challenges: opposition not only to affordable-housing development but often to any development; spiraling financing and construction costs; outdated zoning that stifles or misplaces growth; egregious bureaucratic barriers; and issues around displacement and historic preservation. But some cities have an asset that can serve as a testing ground for harmonizing urgent priorities: their downtown districts.
Many publicly traded homebuilders are now using a “land light” strategy, working with third-party land asset owners to identify opportunities in the path of growth, and studying migration patterns, development, and economic vitality. In doing so, they take possession of the land as “just-in-time” inventory and keep their capital focused on building more efficiently and expanding market share.
