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.

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

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.

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.

Neighborhood collaboration is key to swift rebuilding

The creation of public space from unused, underused, or unequally shared linear spaces in urban areas has been happening for a long time. Major reference points in the architectural and planning worlds are Boston’s Emerald Necklace, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (1878–1896); Freeway Park in Seattle (1972-1976); the Baltimore Inner Harbor (1963–1983); the Promenade Plantée in Paris (1987-1994); and the High Line in New York (2005–2019).

A professional self-certification program could dramatically boost the recovery effort

Consumers have kept a steady foot on the gas this year. A record-high 197 million consumers shopped in stores or online over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). The NRF forecasts that holiday sales will grow between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent, with total retail spending in the United States falling between $979.5 billion and $989 billion during November and December. That forecast also is consistent with NRF’s annual U.S. sales growth—between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent—for 2024.

The U.S. economy did very well in 2024, said Barbara Denham, lead economist for Oxford Economics, and the forecast for the coming year is more of the same—both in New York City and across North America. However, in presenting Oxford’s favorable economic forecast for 2025 at a ULI New York event last month, Denham also noted many caveats ahead of the incoming U.S. administration.

The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced two winners for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award, as well as two winners for the Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing.

In a landmark moment for California housing policy, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two transformative bills into law in June 2025—AB 130 and SB 131. They fundamentally reshape how the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) applies to infill housing. Enacted as part of the state’s broader budget package, these reforms remove major procedural barriers for urban multifamily projects and signal a new direction in the state’s effort to address housing affordability through increased supply.

ULI is proud to announce partnerships with seven public agencies in California and Nevada that are working to advance resilience in urban planning and real estate development in their communities. The organizations are partnering with their local ULI District Councils as part of a larger effort aimed at connecting public sector leaders to ULI’s technical assistance, networks, and other resources and helping cities prepare for the impacts of climate change and other environmental vulnerabilities.

ULI San Francisco and the Civic Joy Fund have announced the winners of the Market Street Reimagined competition. This international competition of ideas, which attracted 173 submissions from nine countries, challenged entrants to create a new vision for the city’s main thoroughfare that would draw more visitors and businesses to the area. A distinguished jury, hosted by San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie, divided the $100,000 prize among the winning teams and designated eight additional entries as honorable mentions.

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.”

Toronto’s deep-lake water cooling system stands as an example of the “third wave” of urban energy.

The global head of corporate real estate at one of the world’s biggest banks told attendees at the 2024 ULI Europe Conference in Milan that a lack of sustainable office assets is “one of the biggest challenges” the company faces.

Preserve will enable the consistent assessment and measurement of climate transition impacts in real estate investment models.

A team from ESSEC Business School in France has been named the winner in this year’s prestigious ULI Hines Student Competition – Europe. The results were announced by ULI and Hines, the global real estate investor, developer, and property manager, following the final of the fifth annual pan-European competition for integrated and multidisciplinary urban regeneration.

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.

Following a period of successful operations and subsequent decline, the Beaugrenelle shopping center in the 15th arrondissement of Paris was demolished to make way for a new-generation venue by making the most of the existing raised slab—a significant constraint left over from the utopian style of architecture of the 1970s.

The Dasha River Ecological Corridor focuses on the ecological restoration project in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen, China. The project, led by China Resources Land and master planned by AECOM, aims to restore the watercourse that connects the coastal Nanshan district to the northern mountainous area of the city.

ULI Asia Pacific report builds the business case.

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.

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.