Markets
Chicago
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.
Investors who specialize in “deconverting” condo properties back into rentals are finding opportunities. But the deals take patience and fortitude.
Dallas
By using 3-D printers to build lightweight but strong plastic frameworks for conventional building materials such as concrete, builders may soon be able to create complex structures with unorthodox shapes and contours that would be difficult or even impossible with today’s construction methods, said a speaker at the ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas. And better yet, they will be able to fashion intricate, customized interiors and exteriors at no additional cost.
A new ULI program that helps office tenants design and manage their spaces to reduce energy consumption could help the real estate industry reduce emissions that are driving climate change. But at the program’s rollout at ULI’s 2016 Fall Meeting in Dallas, panelists said that the new ULI Tenant Energy Optimization Program is likely to have a more far-reaching impact than that of many previous environmental initiatives because it offers a compelling, well-documented business case that energy efficiency can generate a lucrative return on investment.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is the most successful American template for how a major airport can become a core for real estate development and economic growth. Now, planning is taking it to a higher altitude.
Los Angeles
Within days of the fires, the three institutions formed a Rebuild Advisory Committee. The Project Recovery report, produced by about 100 leading experts in land use, urban planning, and economic development, offers in-depth technical analysis and actionable recommendations to accelerate recovery and build long-term resilience in communities.
On January 7, 2025, when sparks began igniting the communities of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena, Altadena, Hollywood, and others, the city of Los Angeles had been struggling to produce 486,379 new housing units by 2029, a number mandated by California’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to address the shortfall.
Multifamily experts gathered at the University of Southern California to highlight where denser construction is creating affordability.
New York City
The winners of the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence become finalists for the 2024 ULI Global Awards for Excellence, competing against projects from the Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The awards are open to projects and programs in the ULI Americas region that are substantially complete, financially viable, and in stable operation. The program evaluates submissions on overall excellence, including achievements in marketplace acceptance, design, planning, technology, amenities, economic impact, management, community engagement, innovation, and sustainability, among others.
How urban planners are turning public places into vibrant centers for living, working, learning, and socializing.
According to the World Green Building Council, buildings currently account for a staggering 39 percent of global emissions, while trillions of dollars’ worth of real estate assets are at risk due to climate-related disasters. At the same time, utility providers are struggling to scale infrastructure to meet growing energy demands spurred by economic growth and development and unprecedented temperature extremes resulting in higher than usual utility charges and devastating outages. Now more than ever, the industry’s progress toward net zero emissions and resilience is critical.
San Francisco
Companies including Macy’s, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, and IKEA are rolling out small-format stores around the country, often in suburban areas, as they try other ways to connect with their customers.
San Francisco can create a more commercially vibrant and socially inclusive downtown that attracts a diverse range of industries and employers, advances housing attainability, and promotes stronger leadership, according to findings released by ULI.
While some big-box retail stores are closing, some developers are eyeing opportunities with retail-to-life science conversions or additions.
Toronto
In the Waterfront Toronto RFP for Quayside, Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs saw a key opportunity for a demonstration project unbound by the conventions of traditional urban planning or real estate economics. This was something new: a chance to innovate at the urban scale, to develop, deploy, and measure the success of a web of new technologies in an actual neighborhood.
A graduate student team from Cornell University, two teams from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a team from the University of Maryland have been selected as the four finalists for the 16th annual ULI Hines Student Competition, an ideas competition that provides students the opportunity to devise a comprehensive design and development scheme for a large-scale site in an urban area.
In 2003, Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government agency, undertook the transformation of 79 acres (32 ha) of provincially owned brownfields in Toronto’s downtown east end. The West Don Lands project was designed through extensive community engagement and collaboration between government and the private sector. The result was an award-winning precinct plan for a pedestrian-focused community—built around parks, with housing for people of all ages, income levels, and abilities; well served by transit, retail, and community amenities; and developed in accordance with stringent sustainability requirements.
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
New lending by European banks is likely to remain strictly conservative, limiting liquidity for the European property market.
The problem of city making today does not so much concern making new ones as it does transforming those that already exist-especially suburbs-and edge-city developments. What can the United States learn from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his goal to remake Paris?
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
Rooftops designed to facilitate drone deliveries, whole floors in residential blocks dedicated to coworking or community spaces, and mobile supermarkets were among the futuristic concepts discussed at the 2022 ULI Singapore Annual Conference.
Technology is paving the way for a segment of investors, many of whom are “digital natives,” to explore real estate as an additional part of their investment portfolio and participate financially in the real estate sector like never before, said panelists speaking at the 2021 ULI Singapore Annual Conference, held both virtually and in person in early March.
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.