New York City
One of New York City’s busiest corridors is set for one of its biggest transformations in years. The area around Manhattan’s Penn Station has long been considered a sore spot for the city, as top-tier retail stores moved to more flourishing areas and local buildings became outdated. But now, with a billion-dollar plan by a New York state agency underway to revitalize public transit infrastructure in and around Penn Station, there is serious momentum for the Midtown neighborhood, which has stalled in growth as surrounding neighborhoods have evolved.
Tattooed, tanned, and tousled, 48-year-old Stefan Quinn Soloviev looks like an athletic nerd who stepped out of a Mad Max film, but don’t let his appearance fool you. Soloviev is one of the largest landowners in the United States—number 21, according to Landreport.com—with a portfolio that includes some of Manhattan’s most coveted properties.
Construction codes are pushing new buildings toward net zero, but roughly 80 percent of the expected 2050 building stock already exists today and needs to undertake major upgrades to meet emissions limits in line with the Paris Agreement. To address this issue, cities and states across the U.S. have started to limit emissions from existing buildings with regulations known as Building Performance Standards (BPS).
Holcim Foundation is equipping the next generation of building practitioners to become impactful voices of change.
New Yorkers have gotten used to watching the sun set behind the piers and towers of Jersey City, the major metropolis of New Jersey’s so-called Gold Coast. But for many years, Jersey City’s glittering line of luxury apartments and office blocks stopped at the water’s edge. Tucked behind modern high-rises, the rest of the city was a patchwork of charming historic districts, aging apartment buildings, public housing, and contaminated, abandoned industrial sites.
Despite the monetary headwinds and continued economic uncertainty around the world, there is a strong belief that the global real estate industry is at a “pivot point,” with improving prospects ahead for renewed investment activity, according to the latest Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Global Outlook 2024 from PwC and the Urban Land Institute.
The mental and physical benefits of being close to bodies of water—or “blue space”—have made headlines amid growing consumer interest in health and wellness. Scientific studies have shown the positive impacts of living and spending time near oceans, lakes, ponds, and rivers—benefits including reduced stress and anxiety, improved sleep, and generally a healthier and more active lifestyle.
Despite volatility and uncertainty, real estate investors are finding ways to make deals. A new consensus is forming around a “reset” in the economy and commercial real estate, according to the 2024 Emerging Trends in Real Estate forecast produced by PwC and ULI. “There’s this sentiment of guarded optimism,” says Bill Staffieri, partner with PwC. He presented the forecast to hundreds of real estate experts at the Real Estate Outlook 2024, hosted in late January in New York City by ULI New York.

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After the chaos and uncertainty of the last year, commercial real estate experts are finally getting a clearer idea of what the real value of real estate should be, according to attendees of the recent ULI McCoy Syposium. That starts with a growing consensus that interest rates are not likely to return to the rock-bottom lows that persisted for much of the last 15 years.
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