A number of factors are encouraging developers to try to bring Mother Nature on as a partner. On the carrot side, some governments are offering incentives to build green. There are sticks as well, which are also helping to keep builders focused on their carbon footprint

After nearly eight years, workers are returning to a former General Electric factory in Fort Wayne. A complex financial package helped create a new home for one of Indiana’s largest employers at this postindustrial site in the U.S. Midwest.

Internationally acclaimed Chicago architect and Studio Gang founder, known for bringing a sustainable approach to tall buildings, to receive the prestigious ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.

Despite challenges, there is momentum in commercial real estate for capital to be raised and invested in underserved communities across the nation, according to a panel of Dallas/Fort Worth developers at the Fall Meeting in Dallas. The primary example they used to illustrate success is the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.

The Dallas/Fort Worth metro area is rising on powerful growth that will lift it past Chicago to become the third-largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation, experts said during a session at the ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas.

The COVID-19 pandemic made 2021 a historic year for the shipping and logistics industry, as rising e-commerce sent large retailers and general merchandisers scrambling for warehouse space to hold their inventory, supply-chain issues delayed shipments, real estate developers strained to keep up with demand, and local governments struggled to issue permits quickly with employees working from home.

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.

The ULI Foundation has announced that Alex J. Rose, executive vice president for Continental Development Corporation, has donated $1 million to support ULI’s Advisory Services program, which offers expertise and technical assistance to communities facing complex land use challenges. This gift is a contribution to the ULI Foundation’s first capital campaign, Our Cities, Our Future, which aims to raise $100 million in support of the Institute’s global mission.

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.

Experts say the real estate market in our cities is responding to the dramatic changes caused by COVID with a “flight to quality.” This headline suggests optimism that a safe harbor still exists out there as does the fear that we all need to act fast and run (for our lives) before things get bad. It reflects a winnowing to the essential characteristics that can ensure the best overall return and insulate us from the changing winds in the economy.

The Manhattan office market is beginning to make a comeback, but much has changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The persistence of hybrid and remote work have changed the equation for commercial rentals, both in terms of landlord-tenant relationships and the quality of office product on offer.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: The Port of San Francisco’s 20-year, multibillion-dollar vision for the waterfront is designed to be adaptable to rising sea levels far into the future.

Registration is open for the 2020 ULI Virtual Fall Meeting, being held October 13–15. An ambitious program is being offered, including tours and networking opportunities that will be facilitated online.

Public subsidies, persistence, and innovative design decisions helped create homes for some of the poorest residents of San Francisco.

At a 2023 ULI Spring Meeting panel titled “View from the Top,” Tsering Yangki, executive vice president at Dream Unlimited, one of Canada’s leading real estate companies, with over $23 billion in assets across North America and Europe, spoke with WLI chair Ellen Klasson, managing director at RCLCO.

As the world struggles to deal with the threat posed by climate change, Toronto provides a template for how cities can dramatically reduce emissions at an urban scale, in a way that is sustainable from a business standpoint, according to panelists at the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto.

Shopping malls, the once-bustling hubs of commerce and community, are now facing an uncertain future in light of relentless urbanization and population growth. But as the city evolves, so too must these giants. At the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto, industry leaders tackled this very question in the panel titled “Reimagining the Mall: The Final Urban Frontier.”

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.

Four students from the London Business School have been announced as winners of the second ULI Hines Student Competition–Europe. The pan-European virtual real estate competition challenged teams to present their vision of a future workplace, based on the redevelopment of an office site in Amsterdam.

The wave of interest in well-being in the United Kingdom is expected to translate into significant investment over the next three years, according to ULI research released in the report Picture of Health: The Growing Role of Wellbeing in Commercial Real Estate Investment Decision-making. The report was released this month at an event in Birmingham, England, by the ULI U.K. Sustainability Forum to highlight the rise of well-being investment in commercial buildings.

Despite the political uncertainty across Europe and around the world, European real estate remains a desirable asset for investors globally. That is the bottom line of the new Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Europe 2020report released by the Urban Land Institute with PwC in Brussels. The coming 2024 Olympic Games were cited as a big draw for Paris, but the Grand Paris project was also mentioned many times by panelists.

Jon Lovell, cofounder of Hillbreak, a consulting firm in the United Kingdom, discusses his recent paper L’Accord de Paris: A Potential Game-Changer for the Global Real Estate Industry, published by ULI.

Given that buildings account for 30 to 40 percent of carbon emissions, the role of real estate owners, investors, and operators in reducing greenhouse gases and atmospheric temperatures cannot be overestimated.

Two of Asia’s leading entrepreneurs gave real estate investors a glimpse into the worlds of Web 3.0 and deep tech at the ULI Asia Pacific Summit.

Technology and contributions from all stakeholders will be crucial if Asia’s cities are to meet their net zero targets. Earlier this year, a series of three webinars organized by ULI China Mainland covered the efforts and challenges of several cities and organizations around the world to give some focus to the efforts in Beijing, which is one of the cities in ULI’s Net Zero Imperative initiative. The discussions also focused on the Chinese capital as well as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Ensuring inclusion and access to all, embodying Hong Kong’s societal values and global identity, safeguarding Hong Kong’s heritage for future generations, and committing to sustainability are among some of the ideas suggested in a new ULI report on how a Hong Kong harbor development can best serve the local community.

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.

Six impressive developments from around the world have been selected as winners of the 2023 ULI Global Awards for Excellence. This year’s winners include two from North America, two from Europe, and two from Asia Pacific.

As the world’s population continues to grow, there will be a need for increased urbanization to accommodate more people. The question is how and when should urban planners decide to regenerate, when to expand and when to create new cities, for sustainable growth and development of future cities, since each approach comes with its benefits and its drawbacks.