Markets
Chicago
Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate was awarded first place in the graduate division of the 13th annual Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation Real Estate Challenge, which culminated with final presentations in April at the offices of Holland & Knight, 150 N. Riverside Plaza in Chicago.
In April, ULI Young Leaders participated in a webinar that addressed the current and future impact of artificial intelligence on the real estate industry and the obstacles and challenges to its adoption.
When the Field Building on Chicago’s LaSalle Street opened in 1932, it was a technological and architectural marvel, with high-speed elevators, drinking fountains, and even air-conditioning, a first for the city. Nearly a century later, the 1.3-million-square-foot (120,774 sq m) Art Deco landmark is a pioneer of a different sort.
Dallas
“Higher and slower for longer” is one of the major trends highlighted in the newly released Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2024 report.
An analysis of hundreds of cities indicates that trips to CBDs in large cities (say, ones above 1.5 million residents) have plateaued around 60 percent of their pre-pandemic levels; smaller towns (for example, ones with fewer than 150,000 residents), in contrast, have fully bounced back.
Turning obsolete office buildings into apartments can be complicated and tricky—but daring developers and ingenious architects are showing a way to help solve housing shortages.
Los Angeles
Neglected yet historic department store remade into a vibrant destination anchored by buzzy health food grocer Erewhon.
At the 2023 ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles (L.A.), attendees had the opportunity to tour Hollywood Park in Inglewood California, a 298-acre location of sports, entertainment, parks, retail, and residential space, which includes the famous SoFi Stadium. Hollywood Park, formerly Hollywood Park Racetrack, is currently being converted into a mixed-use master-planned community highlighting the architectural and lifestyle of Southern California
ULI is deeply saddened at the passing of visionary Los Angeles developer and ULI Life Trustee Wayne Ratkovich at the age of 82. In 1977, he founded The Ratkovich Company, a development firm specializing in urban infill and adaptive reuse projects.
New York City
Women in leadership roles was the theme of a discussion during the 2024 ULI Spring Meeting in New York City. Kelly Nagel, who was recently named Head of Residential at EDENS, an owner and operator of mixed-use properties nationwide, hosted a fireside chat with Nancy Lashine, founder and managing partner at Park Madison Partners, a New York-based boutique advisory and capital-raising firm.
Real estate developers across the United States and around the world are under pressure to cut the amount of carbon their activities put into the atmosphere.
In a general session at the 2024 ULI Spring Meeting, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke with Ralph Rosenberg, a partner and global head of real estate with KKR. Clinton, who now teaches at Columbia University, focused her remarks on what she said are the three major conflicts affecting the global economy.
Members Only
San Francisco
These 10 hotels embody environmental sensitivity plus energy and water efficiency.
BREEAM, the sustainability assessment method developed by BRE Global (‘BRE’), has announced that Mountain Technology Center—MetLife Investment Management’s development featuring five state-of-the-art manufacturing warehouses in Tracy, California—is the first U.S. development to earn BREEAM International New Construction (‘INC’) certification.
Three San Francisco developers discuss focusing on “what would work” in order to create the city’s Mission Bay mixed-use development, during the WLI session at the 2020 ULI Virtual Fall Meeting
Toronto
Ethnic and cultural diversity, combined with a reputation as a welcoming place for immigrants, has long been a strength of the Greater Toronto Area—and it has also influenced the city’s development, panelists cautioned at ULI’s 2023 Spring Meeting.
At the recent 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto, panelists noted that transaction volumes have dropped significantly with the slowing of lending and bank failures.
In the heart of Toronto, a revolution is unfolding underground. Beneath the bustling streets and towering skyscrapers, a network of pipes is tackling the climate crisis. The story of Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system and its potential to reshape the approach to sustainable development was told during a session at the ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto.
London
Despite economic and political uncertainties, a host of market pressures—such as growing connections between sustainability and financial performance, increasing regulations, extreme weather events, and the importance of health and social equity—are driving real estate companies to prioritize sustainability like never before.
Regulatory environment among the barriers to more adoption of modular construction techniques in Europe.
10 structures showcase the lightweight, carbon-sequestering power of mass timber.
Paris
According to the latest Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Europe report from PwC and ULI, 75 percent of real estate leaders agree current valuations “do not accurately reflect” all the challenges and opportunities in real estate, as a wedge continues to be driven between market price expectations and book valuations.
Although residential fell more in the first quarter of 2023, office remains Europe’s most scarred commercial real estate sector, according to advisory firm Green Street. Government mandates around sustainability are also tightening, and Cushman & Wakefield says 76 percent of European office space could be obsolete by 2030 unless landlords start investing now.
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.
Hong Kong
With the Asia Pacific region comprising 4.3 billion people and many of the world’s biggest cities, the sheer scale of the sustainability challenge there is daunting. However, asset owners are increasingly using more sustainable designs and technologies to boost the performance of their assets.
As the real estate industry focuses increasingly on the mantra of carbon efficiency, owners and occupiers are scrambling to find ways to reduce carbon footprints. A recent ULI conference in Hong Kong brought together experts across a range of disciplines to discuss the migration to net zero for both new and retrofitted buildings.
ULI is excited to announce the launch of Art in Place, a global cohort of the Institute’s National and District Councils working independently and together to connect artists, developers, and community voices. The program is the next step in ULI’s ongoing commitment to creative placemaking focused on the integration of art, culture, and creativity as levers of community revitalization.
Singapore
Curating and creating great spaces is at the heart of what industry players in the built environment sector do every day. Placemaking is the “art and science” of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Set against an urban landscape of concrete, steel, and glass in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore’s central business district, Oasia Hotel Downtown (OHD) stands out with its red silhouette clad in lush greenery. An integrated hotel/office development comprising a 27-story, 314-room business hotel and 100 new-age offices, OHD responds to the government’s vision for the precinct earmarked as the island’s next waterfront city with a mix of business, commercial, and residential activities.
As cities become denser, the cost of high-density parking begins to pencil out for developers—which is when the development of parking that automatically stores and retrieves cars becomes attractive.
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