Property Types
Hotels and Resorts
It’s tough to view a strong economy as bad news. Yet a firmly positive economic projection in ULI’s Real Estate Economic Forecast does not bode well for commercial real estate participants who are hoping for relief in rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
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These 10 hotels embody environmental sensitivity plus energy and water efficiency.
Two years after the start of the global pandemic, the outlook for the U.S. hotel industry is decidedly positive. STR, a CoStar Group company and a global leader in hospitality analytics, continues to report ever-improving metrics in the United States. The prospects for the sector are embodied in six themes.
Industrial
Once overlooked as little more than open-air spaces for trailer parking, industrial outdoor storage (IOS) sites are emerging as a promising niche for their increasingly significant role in the e-commerce and logistics sectors and their potential to earn strong returns for investors.
Demand for industrial space has pushed vacancies to historically low levels. But the high tide may no longer be lifting all boats. A surge in new supply along with a growing appetite for more modern facilities is putting more pressure on the sector’s aging building stock. Legacy buildings are having a tougher time keeping up with the changing demands of today’s space users.
A confluence of economic and geopolitical trends is changing global supply chains and driving increased demand for industrial and logistics real estate in Southeast Asia, according to industry leaders at ULI Asia Pacific’s REImagine conference.
Mixed-Use
ULI San Francisco recently hosted a panel revisiting the recommendations made by ULI Advisory Servies panelists to revive the downtown and highlighting the progress that has been made.
The winners of the second ULI Hines Student Competition for the Asia Pacific region faced a dual challenge: create a compelling urban development proposal and follow in the footsteps of classmates who won the inaugural contest.
A close look at trends shaping today’s best economic and talent hubs that offers valuable clues into how to create equitable, sustainable innovation districts that prosper.
Multifamily
Under the leadership of Chief Investment Officer Wes Fuller, Greystar, a vertically integrated real estate firm that owns, operates, and develops multifamily, student, and senior housing, began investing in international markets in 2013, including in Europe, Asia, and South America. The company’s robust institutional investment management platform now has a global presence in 249 markets.
Developers of middle-income projects can’t use subsidy programs such as federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) to finance their plans. Middle-income developments also often don’t earn enough in rent to support conventional construction loans or attract equity investors.
Eight years ago, the landmark Paris Agreement kicked off a worldwide campaign to reduce carbon emissions. The targets set were big: slash emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and be net zero by 2050. So far, the world is not making enough progress on those lofty goals, and the progress that has been made has been very unevenly distributed. Experts from major real estate firms, including Boston Properties, CBRE, and Community Preservation Corporation, drove home the net zero transition’s importance during a panel discussion at the 2024 ULI Spring Meeting in New York City. They talked about the costs of getting to net zero, what lenders and owners are doing to get there, and the risk of not addressing climate change.
Office
RXR CEO and Chairman Scott Rechler, in a recent ULI members-only webinar with ULI Foundation Chair Faron A. Hill, described the challenges and opportunities ahead as an epic, unavoidable storm. “That hurricane … eventually, it’s going to hit land,” Rechler warned. “The question is when it hits, how hard it hits, and where it hits the hardest.”
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1933 postal distribution center made over for indoor/outdoor office and Manhattan’s largest rooftop park
Supertall creates a “palpable energy” that speaks to New York’s resilience and the future of cities
Residental
A tsunami of emptying houses of worship—up to 100,000, according to one religious source—is washing across America. Developing intelligent reuses and redevelopments for these properties will make the difference between a community flourishing and struggling. Housing advocates view underused faith properties as natural sites to develop projects that help close the great national gap on affordable housing.
ULI Asia Pacific report builds the business case.
Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for real estate brokerage Redfin, will be presenting at the upcoming 2024 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference in Austin. A classically trained economist with both a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago, Fairweather previously worked at Amazon and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Retail
The impact of daytime workers on certain types of retail has long been overstated. Yes, they provide critical support for lunch eateries and coffee bars, as well as select services including fitness studios and shoe repair. But downtowns could never count on this demographic for much more than that.
Headlines have long proclaimed the demise of the American shopping mall. Despite undeniable shifts in the retail landscape, the truth about these spaces is more nuanced. These massive parcels often stand in prime locations and therefore hold massive potential to sidestep scrap-and-redevelop and to truly evolve.
As the recent cultural and real estate realignment called “The Great Mall Sorting” continues, A-plus malls are thriving, while the B and C properties are gradually being repurposed, reused, and completely rethought, according to architect Sean Slater, senior principal at the architectural firm RDC in San Diego.
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