Prospects for economic recovery may be slow and uneven over the next couple of years, experts said during a State of the Industry panel at the 2020 ULI Virtual Fall Meeting.

ULI MEMBER-ONLY CONTENT: How can the real estate development industry more successfully prepare for, navigate, and adapt to adverse events? Members of several of ULI’s product councils discuss resilience strategies, the impact of COVID-19, the role of state and local governments in working with the private sector to promote resilience, and other related trends.

ULI MEMBER-ONLY CONTENT: The tendency to isolate yourself from the outside world by sheltering at home could be an enduring effect of the coronavirus pandemic, Miki Tsusaka, managing director and senior partner in the Tokyo office of Boston Consulting Group, said in early September at ULI Asia Pacific’s REImagine conference.

The benefits of creative placemaking, along with best practices and successful case studies in cities throughout the United States, are explored in the ULI report, Creative Placemaking: Sparking Development with Arts and Culture. The report presents the business case and process for successful creative placemaking, defined in the report as a process that integrates arts and culture with good design.

During a recent ULI webinar hosted by ULI Kansas City titled “Equity in Parks,” experts in their fields discussed the recent report released by the Institute’s Advisory Services program and shared their perspectives on how to make Kansas City a better place through the creation of an equitable park system. One of the conclusions of the report was that the city must establish a more equitable process for parks and recreation investment in hopes of tackling racial divisions.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: With more Americans working, taking classes online, and, of course, quarantining in their homes, one study looks at the changing needs and preferences of owners and renters alike.

Employees, business partners, and others may set up housekeeping and create a real-life test environment for new technologies in autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and robotics.

A sleek utility pole called the Ekin Spotter—made by Ekin, an international software, hardware, and design firm that focuses on smart cities—can accommodate such modules as a license-plate reader, traffic radar, red-light cameras, and air quality sensors, along with electric-vehicle charging ports. This was the type of municipal-level technology on display at the 2020 CES show earlier this year, along with other smart-city components such as partially or fully autonomous vehicles, delivery drones, and street-based sensors.

The family-oriented U.S. rental housing stock has failed to focus on older millennials with families who require larger units, according to a new ULI report.

When the SARS epidemic surfaced in China in 2003, the impact on domestic real estate was severe but fairly short-lived, with rents and prices rebounding quickly once the outbreak had peaked. The fallout from COVID-19, however, promises to be more profound, as shrinking global demand for Chinese products turns the screw on firms that have only recently restarted operations, said industry experts working in the region.