Speaking at an event in New York City, Dror Poleg, a former real estate and technology executive and co-chair of ULI New York’s Technology and Innovation Council, said shifts in real estate often result from overlooked factors that alter its value, beginning in the faraway emergence of landlord/tenant relations out of feudalism and stretching to the innovations of today.

When e-commerce first became entrenched in China, it seemed to sound the death knell for traditional retail. Sporting venues and other cultural attractions are helping bring foot traffic to the experiential retail of the future, said panelists at a ULI event in Shanghai.

Greening the workplace beyond the existing building code requirements requires both tenants and owners to prioritize investing in and tracking sustainability. Two panels of experts, one composed of tenant representatives and the other of property owner representatives, discussed their challenges and solutions at “Beyond Code for a Greener Bay Area: Owner and Tenant Solutions for Sustainable Buildouts,” an event organized by ULI San Francisco and ULI’s Tenant Energy Optimization Program.

From recommending how communities in Puerto Rico can better prepare for extreme weather events to how Atlanta can “stitch” a divided downtown back together with new streets, buildings, and parks, ULI members have provided creative solutions to the most complex land use challenges facing communities for more than 70 years through the Institute’s Advisory Services program.

The ULI Europe Leadership Retreat, which took place in Lisbon at the end of September, was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with fellow professionals from the real estate industry thanks to the connections made through the ULI.

Ten outstanding female real estate professionals were recognized at the recent ULI Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C., as the 2019 recipients of the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) Prologis Achievement Award. Recipients of the prestigious award were hosted at the meeting by senior WLI members, who are serving as mentors to the awardees to help them advance in the industry and strengthen their engagement with the Institute. The WLI Prologis Achievement Award is part of the Institute’s focus on increasing diversity and inclusivity throughout the Institute and the industry.

While cities attract people who want better opportunities, rapid urbanization could create political and national security crises unless adequate housing is provided in ways and in areas that foster social equity, said Alejandro Aravena, winner of the 2019 J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Aravena, partner and founder of ELEMENTAL, an architecture firm in Santiago, Chile, was a featured speaker at the Fall Meeting.

ULI Global Chairman Owen D. Thomas, whose chairmanship began July 1, shared his priorities for the Institute with Fall Meeting attendees during the event’s closing session Friday. “No other organization comes close to ULI in terms of sharing expertise and best practices that shape the built environment around the globe,” Thomas said. “I look forward, along with ULI’s capable staff led by [ULI Global Chief Executive Officer] Ed Walter, to building on the work of my predecessors and taking ULI to the next level of excellence.”

The New York City Housing Authority and the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority have been selected by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing as the joint winners of the 2019 Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award, which is an annual recognition of the innovative ways that the public sector is addressing the country’s affordable housing crisis. The winners, selected by a jury of nationally renowned housing industry leaders, were announced today during ULI’s 2019 Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. Terwilliger Center Founder and former ULI Chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger served as the jury chairman.

Plaza Roberto Maestas in Seattle; the Lindley in Bethesda, Maryland; and the Watson in Quincy, Massachusetts, have been selected as the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing’s 2019 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award. The annual award recognizes best practices in the development of housing that is affordable to people with a broad range of incomes. Developments eligible for the award are those in which all or a portion of the units are affordable to households earning up to 120 percent of the median income in the areas in which the projects are located.