Property Types

In a competitive global market, resort designers are racing to define the “new luxury.” The modern concept of luxury is “really about elegance and simplicity,” said Richard Centolella, a principal in design firm EDSA, during a panel discussion at the ULI Fall Meeting.

Tourism is a critical factor in the U.S. and world economies. “The impacts of tourism on a community can be beneficial if planned and managed, or extremely damaging if left without controls,” says Michael Kelly, former chairman of the APA’s tourism planning division.

Technology and changing travel habits are checking in as long-term guests.

Last month, Cushman & Wakefield reported that U.S. industrial markets absorbed 63.6 million square feet (5.9 million sq m) of space in the final quarter of 2016, which propelled net absorption for the year to a record-setting 282.9 million square feet (26.3 million sq m). According to the company, the U.S. industrial vacancy rate for all product types continued to decline in the fourth quarter, falling 30 basis points (bps) from the prior quarter and 100 bps from the prior year to 5.5 percent.

A ULI Advisory Services panel will visit the city of Georgetown and Georgetown County to advise representatives on how best to transform a 150-acre (61 ha) site into a catalyst for economic development.

FutureBuild 2016, hosted in January by ULI Los Angeles in partnership with VerdeXchange, offered a look at urban growth challenges in Los Angeles that are illustrative of issues faced by cities everywhere as they aspire to become more livable, prosperous, and sustainable.

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.

Neglected yet historic department store remade into a vibrant destination anchored by buzzy health food grocer.

Cambridge Crossing, a 4.5 million-square-foot (418,063.7 square meters) mixed-use space in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of this year’s recipients of the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence. The roughly 43-acre (17.4 hectares) project, built at the site of an abandoned railyard, has about 2.4 million square feet (223,027 square meters) of residential space, including about 2,700 residential units, and the project had multiple master plans from different developers, dating as far back as 2003.

Every commercial real estate cycle presents a unique opportunity to drive innovation and refine investment strategy. That’s among the takeaways from Urban Land’s interview with industry vet Jim Brooks, president of Los Angeles–based BH Properties. Brooks brings deep experience in navigating cycles and unlocking value, with a resume that includes The Koll Company, Morgan Stanley, Tishman Speyer, and Columbia’s real estate Master’s degree program.

Existing properties get makeovers to provide sustainable options for vulnerable populations

Los Angeles-based impact fund manager SDS Capital Group has launched a new capital platform—SDS Impact Debt (SDSID)—that aims to bring much needed, low-cost debt to the affordable housing market. It is an asset-backed model that offers below-market financing (both permanent and construction) for affordable housing projects—and is potentially scalable across the U.S.

St. Louis, long known as the Gateway to the West, is rapidly becoming the gateway to the region’s future. Diverse communities have begun working together to make the city a major hub for cutting-edge innovations in aerospace, agriculture, finance, transportation, biosciences, entertainment, and much more. The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership is dedicated to finding economic development partners who can help companies thrive in greater St. Louis, regardless of their size, and at the same time help those companies to deliver new opportunities into under resourced neighborhoods.

West Main, a 1,030,000-square-foot (95,690 sq m) office, retail, and mixed-use project, is the new home to some of Amazon’s 12,000-person workforce in Bellevue, Washington. The three-building project, designed by Graphite Design Group in collaboration with Compton Design Office for Vulcan Real Estate, is transforming this city neighboring Seattle to the east.

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.

Demonstrating the connections among health, social equity, and living environments, ULI Arizona is offering solutions to boost housing affordability.

The segregation of urban neighborhoods across the United States since the Great Depression was largely created by policies and practices established and enforced by local and federal authorities, Richard Rothstein, author of the bestselling book The Color of Law, said during a group discussion with ULI members at the 2020 ULI Building Healthy Places Forum.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: Health is not just a trend in real estate development but an important factor that differentiates projects and benefits people and communities, Randall Lewis, ULI Foundation governor and executive vice president of Lewis Management Corp., said at a 2020 ULI Virtual Fall Meeting product council session he moderated on healthy living principles.

A compact new Denver IKEA uses geothermal and solar energy, coupled with parking ramp conveyors, to create a more land- and energy-efficient alternative to sprawling big-box stores.

How are retailers doing in the wake of the ongoing economic downturn? According to a panel of national large-format retailers convened during ULI’s 2011 Fall Meeting in Los Angeles, they’re doing better than some might expect—thanks to smaller and more efficient footprints, growing use of social media to reach their clientele, sophisticated branding, and a focus on customer service.