With a few tweaks to the development plan, Kai Tak—a decommissioned airport—can become the vibrant, mixed-use community the Hong Kong government wants it to be, says a ULI advisory services panel.

Once the butt of jokes by late-night comedians, Newark now has building cranes dotting its skyline—proof that the Garden State’s largest city is experiencing something of a renaissance.

In its transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based one, Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has become the most robust innovation-based cluster in the nation—if not the world.

Cost is secondary to value right now, declared one panelist at a session titled “Rethinking the Office Market” at the ULI 2011 Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo in Los Angeles.

There are many paths to earning a university degree in real estate development, and a wide variety of disciplines and subjects provide grist for that education mill.

Despite some downward-trending market indicators, the forecast for the commercial real estate sector is decidedly more mixed for the coming year, depending on the market sector, according to Deloitte.

“We don’t need any more office space.” This is the takeaway quote from a session titled “Rethinking the Office Market” at ULI’s 2011 Fall Meeting in Los Angeles. Though this pronouncement may seem extreme, the five panelists in attendance gave their insights into what has changed in the office market over the course of the Great Recession—and what can be expected in coming years.

Historically high levels of national debt, combined with falling gross domestic product levels, have left some European economies exposed to sovereign debt concerns. For many countries, decreasing national debt through austerity measures—including job cuts—is the only option. Read more to learn which markets are expected to be most affected by the widespread reduction in public sector spending.

When it comes to the best and worst markets for office and retail development in Europe, large, stable markets like Germany and Poland are places where new assets can be developed; in countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal, however, where there are concerns about sovereign debt, it is much more difficult. Read more to learn what types of development will succeed and what investors now expect.