Experts from Hines, JBG Smith, and Gensler anchored a McKinsey & Company panel, Reimagining mixed-use districts: strategies for new developments in an ever-changing world, at the 2024 ULI Fall Meeting last month. Panelists explored innovative ideas and case studies to illustrate how to make complex mixed-use projects work in today’s market.

One of New York City’s busiest corridors is set for one of its biggest transformations in years. The area around Manhattan’s Penn Station has long been considered a sore spot for the city, as top-tier retail stores moved to more flourishing areas and local buildings became outdated. But now, with a billion-dollar plan by a New York state agency underway to revitalize public transit infrastructure in and around Penn Station, there is serious momentum for the Midtown neighborhood, which has stalled in growth as surrounding neighborhoods have evolved.

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.

As the world’s population continues to grow, there will be a need for increased urbanization to accommodate more people. The question is how and when should urban planners decide to regenerate, when to expand and when to create new cities, for sustainable growth and development of future cities, since each approach comes with its benefits and its drawbacks.

Providing end-users with a choice that originates from a binary view—either indoor or outdoor—is no longer enough.

Strict one-use-per-parcel zoning rules have long limited the growth of mixed-use projects in Spain, but the builders of a new office, residential, and commercial project in Madrid hope their example will pave the way for other integrated projects.

Shopping malls, the once-bustling hubs of commerce and community, are now facing an uncertain future in light of relentless urbanization and population growth. But as the city evolves, so too must these giants. At the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto, industry leaders tackled this very question in the panel titled “Reimagining the Mall: The Final Urban Frontier.”

In a report that emphasized upward mobility and inclusion in Indiana’s second largest city, a ULI Advisory Services panel for the Electric Works redevelopment project in Fort Wayne, Indiana, focused on the economic importance of being a destination with an “open tent.” That means having real and stated plans that emphasize the inclusion of the entire region.

The Real Estate Economic Forecast, produced by the ULI Center for Real Estate Economics and Capital Markets, is based on a survey conducted in April 2023 of 41 economists and analysts at 37 leading real estate organizations. According to the survey, the U.S. economy will slow in 2023 and 2024, with recovery expected to begin in 2025. The real estate market will follow suit, with flat to negative results over the next two years, followed by mostly positive news in 2025.

Four teams, representing Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and the University of California, Berkeley, have been selected as finalists in the 21st annual ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, an event that challenges teams of graduate students to devise a comprehensive design and development plan for a real-world urban site.