Property Types

As competition for the dollars of vacationers and business travelers ratchets up, hotel companies are on a never-ending search for ways to differentiate themselves. Guests are looking for uniqueness, local flavor and history, and bespoke experiences that they can capture and share instantly through social media networks, according to a panel of hotel industry experts at the recent ULI Florida Summit in Miami.

The focus of most panelists at ULI’s Latin America Conference, held in late October, was on the stronger markets, including Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. There also was optimism about a turnaround in Brazil and Argentina’s most recent election.

Newly confident and deep-pocketed consumers are driving vacation-home sales to levels that have not been seen in a decade, said panelists at the ULI Fall Meeting. But prices have not yet reached previous peaks, and buyers are increasingly cautious and cost-conscious.

There was a time before Prohibition when St. Louis had more than 40 breweries. By the 1980s, however, that number had dwindled to just two. Today, experts speaking at a ULI panel said St. Louis’s smaller brewery scene is again thriving, with 50 separate breweries operating locally.

Commercialized marijuana is big business and is expanding as a new asset class at an astronomical rate, according to a ULI Spring Meeting panel of industry investors, operators, and legal experts on the state of the cannabis business and real estate opportunities being created in the sector. Twenty-eight states have legalized the sale of medical marijuana, and eight states plus the District of Columbia allow recreational marijuana to some degree.

Breweries have an almost magical ability to revitalize neighborhoods and even entire towns, according to panelists speaking at ULI’s 2017 Carolinas Meeting.

A redevelopment plan for a Seattle site presented by a team of Georgia Institute of Technology students has taken top honors in the 22nd annual ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The competition was created with a generous endowment from long-time ULI leader Gerald D. Hines, founder of the Hines real estate organization.

A team from ESSEC Business School in France has been named the winner in this year’s prestigious ULI Hines Student Competition – Europe. The results were announced by ULI and Hines, the global real estate investor, developer, and property manager, following the final of the fifth annual pan-European competition for integrated and multidisciplinary urban regeneration.

Experts say the real estate market in our cities is responding to the dramatic changes caused by COVID with a “flight to quality.” This headline suggests optimism that a safe harbor still exists out there as does the fear that we all need to act fast and run (for our lives) before things get bad. It reflects a winnowing to the essential characteristics that can ensure the best overall return and insulate us from the changing winds in the economy.

At a panel at the 2025 ULI Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, legal experts shared their insights on how developers, planners, and housing advocates can better navigate the myriad barriers and evolving legal framework at federal, state, and local levels to advance affordable housing projects and initiatives.

As practitioners in the industry, we can all too easily reduce our thoughts about housing to the practical machinations of our work. Decisions are often made to serve regulatory agencies and capital providers, and to find the cheapest and fastest path to completion. We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that our job is to create places that serve real-life human needs.

Local governments are rolling out new and updated programs—including tax incentives and zoning amendments—to encourage developers to convert vacant office buildings to some other use.

This year’s Net Zero Buildings Week is Sept. 16-20. The virtual event series supports partnerships and collaboration across the built environment industry to collectively advance net zero buildings.

Northern Mexico has experienced a significant expansion in the Mexican industrial real estate sector since its major decline from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, due, in part, to low-cost production in China. During the pandemic, that trend began to shift.

For many who live outside Southern California, the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles is remembered for the well-documented riots of 1965, a six-day period of civil unrest that brought 34 fatalities, numerous injuries, and widespread arrests.

Located in Santa Ana, California, La Placita Cinco is an innovative $31.4 million mixed-use project and a great example of how developers can revitalize aging retail.

Developers build single-story, single-family detached housing units in multifamily communities to rent at premiums over multistory projects.

As attention turns to what real estate markets may be like once the COVID-19 pandemic has wound down, the outlook for office properties is particularly hazy. More than a year of home-based work left office spaces idle, and it remains unknown how many people will resume their daily commutes once health conditions and local regulations permit.

A new report from CBRE highlights that the two categories occupying the most space in U.S. malls—department stores at 48.7 percent of gross leasable area, and apparel, accessories, and shoes at 29.4 percent—also posted relatively tepid retail-sales growth from 2011 to 2016. In contrast, categories with stronger retail-sales growth, such as health care, still account for relatively little occupancy of U.S. malls

In addition to Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, an enormous amount of movement has occurred in the grocery sector in the past year, as regional chains expand into new markets and European brands enter the United States.

The growing economic impact of millennials, growing demand for dining, and increasing interest from international brands are transforming the American retail real estate landscape.