For more than a decade, the brick “two-flat” on the 900 block of North Drake Avenue on Chicago’s West Side had been vacant. But by the time the school year begins this fall, the West Humboldt Park home will have a new occupant. A major reason for this property’s happy ending is the involvement of a land bank that acquired the building and wiped out its back taxes and encumbrances, making it easier for someone to purchase the property and improve it.

Logistics property developer GLP is taking advantage of new technologies to increase efficiency for its tenants. Chief executive officer Ming Mei told attendees at the ULI Asia Pacific Summit 2017 that his firm is using big data to improve efficiency in its logistics parks in China, analyzing everything from the temperature of cold-storage trucks to site selection for logistics tenants.

As job growth in the professional services sector has increased substantially over the past several years, office real estate investment trusts (REITs) have benefited from strong leasing fundamentals. However, more office construction and oversupply concentrated in major metro areas such as New York City, Houston, and Washington, D.C., continue to concern those in the market. Plus, interest rate survey data from Trepp.

The growing involvement of the real estate industry in helping municipalities manage stormwater runoff with systems using natural resources is explored in a new ULI publication, Harvesting the Value of Water.

October share prices for REITS were lower month-over-month, and all sectors posted lower returns, except for infrastructure REITs which reported 18.3 percent in total returns for the year. Despite the decline in prices and performance, sector returns continue to surpass the S&P 500. Plus, interest rate survey data from Trepp.

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.

Macy’s has announced plans to close 100 of its 675 traditional full-price locations and to increase investment in its online channel, which heightened concern about bricks-and-mortar retail versus e-commerce and led regional mall REITs lower. Plus, interest rate survey data from Trepp.

In the coming years, it will be possible to access mountains of aggregated market data and do real-time valuations for industrial, retail, and office properties; and buildings will be traded online the way that stocks are traded now. That is the world envisioned by a panel of real estate information technology providers at ULI’s 2015 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, and they expect to see it happening in the next few years.

U.S. architects are experimenting with designing net-zero-energy buildings—those that produce as much energy as they consume. Developers around the world are building modular housing to speed construction, reduce on-site labor expenses, and lower development costs. Now, an off-site systems building manufacturer has developed the first modular net-zero-energy townhouses as a demonstration project in Oakland, California.