Emerging Trends
The next decade will be a critical period of change, with ongoing uncertainty amid the big evolution in technology, data, and laws. Commercial real estate market players may shift their strategies, affecting capital flows into and out of the asset class.
In Denver’s Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood, an interesting addition to the urban fabric has emerged over the past five years in the form of activated streets and alleyways that serve as a connective tissue for art, entertainment, culture, and gathering. In early October, ULI Colorado’s Building Healthy Places committee hosted a panel to discuss our new age of activated alleyways.
One company is building mobile applications to bring a deeper sense of community and communication to master-planned communities.
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: How can urban cores rebound from the pandemic? Members of ULI’s Urban Revitalization councils discuss the pandemic’s potential long-term effects on development in urban cores, opportunities for creative redevelopment, steps that municipalities can take, ways to enhance resilience in urban cores, and other trends.
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Physical distancing and restriction of travel were some of the earliest and most effective and widespread strategies enacted worldwide to control the transmission of COVID-19. Roads emptied of typical automobile traffic, and many were used in new ways to support the needs of communities. Cities used roadways to create space for walking and bicycling, outdoor commerce, and queuing for essential services, with the implementation of these programs moving abnormally quickly to respond to an increased demand.
Despite potential storm clouds ahead, survey results from the Emerging Trends in Real Estate ® United States and Canada 2022report show strong optimism.
The success of Chicago’s push in recent years to support development near public transit had a problem, according to Charlton Hamer, senior vice president of local developer Habitat Affordable Group: The popularity of the new projects created inequity because many people could not afford to live in them.
The real estate industry can simultaneously combat inequality and boost property values by improving broadband access, according to a new ULI report. Broadband and Real Estate: Understanding the Opportunity, from the Institute’s Curtis Infrastructure Initiative, makes clear that high-speed internet is no longer a luxury but a necessity for participating in society and the economy.
With features such as mezzanine offices above warehouse spaces and shared-amenity areas in which people can exercise and socialize, developers are transforming the once-staid genre of industrial buildings by incorporating features comparable to those typically found in office and mixed-use projects, according to a recent ULI panel discussion. Panelists also described design changes made to facilitate the increasingly rapid movement of e-commerce goods and rooftop solar installations that can supply most of a building’s energy needs.
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: What is coming for travel services, concessions, commercial development, and logistics?
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History shows that well-managed cities are resilient to the ravages of pandemics and will evolve to become even more resilient, economist Ed Glaeser told attendees at the 2021 ULI Asia Pacific Summit.
An “urban exodus” may be a myth, but a hybrid of office-based and non-office workplaces may become a norm, say panelists Richard Florida of the University of Toronto, Diane Hoskins of Gensler, and Mark Grinis of EY.
Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John stressed the importance of individualism and authenticity when discussing innovation in the corporate and social spheres.
Four developers based in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area discussed the “invisible threat” that the COVID-19 pandemic posed to real estate, recounting a volatile year and how it has affected the industry.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are not a one-time program that companies must create to check a box, but should be an ongoing commitment that spans years. That is what participants heard during the 2021 ULI Virtual Spring Meeting session, “The Corporate Journey toward Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion.”
Developers share how different cities deployed creative ideas to help maintain urban vitality and business opportunities despite restrictions on public gatherings. Their successful techniques may outlast the pandemic.
While many businesses in the United States have been coping with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for a year or longer, the broader availability of vaccines and a rebounding global economy are cause for more optimism than skepticism across the real estate industry, said industry leaders participating in a recent ULI webinar. Industrial, self-storage, and single-family rentals have been some of the sectors surging, while laggard sectors are still betting on a burgeoning recovery.
As the new appointees at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development settle into their roles, they face challenges both old and new. Ethan Handelman, the new deputy assistant secretary of the agency’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, addressed the 2021 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference in March.
Between January and March 2021, Urban Landpublished a series of articles chronicling the efforts of member-led task forces organized by ULI district councils in Chicago, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Tampa to address local policy and regulatory barriers to creation of healthier and more equitable places. These initiatives were part of ULI’s District Council Task Force for Health and Social Equity Project.
In recognition of Women’s History Month, ULI is highlighting people and projects that have worked to advance gender equity and parity in the real estate industry. The Institute’s commitment to addressing the industry’s gender gap is formally seen through the Women’s Leadership Initiative.
The mayor of Paris is embracing the ville du quart d’heure—translated as 15-minute city—the first time that a leading politician in France’s largest city had backed the idea, particularly as a reelection strategy.
Northern Italy, one of the hardest-hit areas during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is poised to come out of the pandemic far stronger, with a greater emphasis on green space and social cohesion, said Pierfrancesco Maran, deputy mayor for urban planning, green areas, and agriculture of the municipality of Milan, speaking at the 2021 ULI Virtual Europe Conference.
Collaborative efforts were celebrated at a Centre for Liveable Cities World Cities Summit Preview event on climate resilience in January, which explored how to accelerate cooperation between the public and private sectors.
The climate plan outlined by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s administration is significant in that it reaffirms a commitment to addressing climate challenges, said panelists participating in a recent webinar hosted by the ULI Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance. The plan would also provide considerable resources to support and propel innovation throughout the real estate industry in key areas such as energy efficiency, carbon emission mitigation, and climate change resilience.
The Villages, a retiree-focused community northwest of Orlando, in 2020 once again topped RCLCO’s listing of the 50 top-selling U.S. master-planned communities. Total new home sales among the communities were 20 percent higher in 2020 than the previous year, RCLCO reported.
In October, the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance announced an additional goal to reduce the operational carbon emissions of its members’ collective buildings to net zero by the year 2050. Eleven ULI Greenprint members have already publicly committed to this target on top of the 50 percent carbon reduction goal by 2030 that all ULI Greenprint members have already pledged.
At the 2020 ULI Asia Pacific Leadership Convivium, an international retail CEO shared her experience of engaging with customers, both offline and online, during the COVID-19 pandemic and how working with understanding landlords has helped create win/win outcomes.
ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: As climate change puts coastal areas at risk from rising seas and subjects Sun Belt and Southeast cities to hotter temperatures, some of their residents may go elsewhere. Experts say it is time to start preparing.
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ULI MEMBER-ONLY CONTENT: As COVID-19 has changed housing preferences and led to some migration away from metropolitan areas, climate change also is beginning to trigger migration in the United States, said experts at the 2020 ULI Virtual Fall Meeting.
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Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor in chief of the Economist, outlined several trends accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic in a presentation at the 2020 ULI Virtual Fall Meeting.
