Property Types
ULI Property Types provides insights into challenges, opportunities, and innovations specific to each property type, supporting developers, investors, planners, and policymakers in making informed decisions and responding to dynamic market conditions. It organizes and showcases content on the major real estate classifications — including hotels and resorts, industrial, mixed-use, multifamily, office, residential, and retail — to help industry professionals understand how different segments perform and evolve.
Hotels and Resorts
In many--and sometimes surprising--ways, 55-and-older consumers are seeking the same housing amenities and lifestyles as their youngers.
At a 2014 ULI Spring Meeting panel in Vancouver, three successful resort developers discussed how they are achieving success by focusing on health, wellness, and activities that bring together family members across all generations—even ex-spouses.
The redevelopment of the historic Metropole building represents the first full-service hotel to open in downtown Cincinnati in 28 years.
Industrial
Global e-commerce titans, such as Google and Amazon and China’s Alibaba, are transforming customer expectations on product selection, convenience, and shopping experiences, which may lead to less demand for traditional retail real estate, Jim Tompkins, CEO of Tompkins International, told attendees at ULI’s Midwinter Meeting in Paris last week.
Extracting oil and natural gas from shale is just one driver of the state’s latest glory days.
Who would have thought that the revitalization of Detroit would include high-end watch manufacturing and the revival of a century-old shoe polish brand?
Mixed-Use
Internationally acclaimed Chicago architect and Studio Gang founder, known for bringing a sustainable approach to tall buildings, to receive the prestigious ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.
UnCommons was initially designed before the pandemic and then modified in response to it.
Attendees of ULI’s 2022 Fall Meeting in Dallas will have the chance to visit two master-planned communities northwest of the city’s downtown.
Multifamily
Demand is surging for senior housing as America’s population ages, but supply continues to lag. That gap is one reason investors in ULI’s 2025 Emerging Trends report rated the sector second highest for the best risk-adjusted returns over the next three years. Supply and demand dynamics don’t tell the whole story, though: senior housing development tends to thrive at the upper end, where seniors with means can afford to live in a continuing care retirement community.
In the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, two not-for-profit organizations—Fresh Hope Communities, the public benevolent institution entity of churches of Christ in NSW and ACT, and Nightingale Housing of Brunswick, Victoria—came together to develop a building that contains 54 units renting at 80 percent of market rates as well as two community-focused commercial spaces. The Churches of Christ Property Trust has provided a 99 year lease for the land, which allows the units to remain affordable far beyond a more typical 10-year period.
On January 7, 2025, when sparks began igniting the communities of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena, Altadena, Hollywood, and others, the city of Los Angeles had been struggling to produce 486,379 new housing units by 2029, a number mandated by California’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to address the shortfall.
Office
Supertall creates a “palpable energy” that speaks to New York’s resilience and the future of cities
Berkeley, California, is emerging as a hub for life sciences and technology firms, with new developments opening in the West Berkeley neighborhood. In June, ULI San Francisco hosted a walking tour through two campuses targeting life sciences research and development tenants at the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay: theLAB Berkeley and Berkeley Commons.
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.
Residental
The future of housing is being influenced by evolving demographics, increased urbanization, higher construction costs, and financially constrained consumers who nonetheless demand meaningful, walkable communities, said panelists at the 2020 ULI Housing Conference in Miami. A shower of innovation rains down on the housing designers and builders who sort through options that include prefabricated homes, modular building components, and low-carbon technologies that support sustainable development goals.
Out of the rising tides of climate change have emerged nimble projects that embrace rising floodwaters and shifts in thinking about design and construction, according to panelists at the 2020 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference in Miami.
With the population of older residents fast outpacing the supply of units designed for them, panelists at the 2020 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference in Miami shared how devolopers are working to address the misperceptions, changing financial considerations, and design trends for the sector.
Retail
The National Retail Federation predicts a record-breaking 2025 holiday season, with U.S. sales for November and December projected to grow between 3.7 percent and 4.2 percent—pushing total holiday sales past $1 trillion for the first time. Yet there also are signs that consumers are nervous; that mood, plus accounting for inflation, could leave holiday spending relatively flat.
From Dead Mall to Living District: Replacing the “Great Wall of Galleria” with a Connected Urban Core
For decades, civic leaders have tried to revitalize Market Street, San Francisco’s central thoroughfare, only to see their efforts founder. “I sometimes call it the great white whale of San Francisco,” says Eric Tao, managing partner at L37 Development in San Francisco and co-chair of ULI San Francisco. “Every new mayor, every new planning director, every new economic development director has chased that white whale.” This year, however, an international competition of ideas hosted and run by ULI San Francisco, with support from the ULI Foundation, generated fresh momentum for reimagining the boulevard. The competition drew 173 submissions from nine countries and sparked new conversations about the future of downtown San Francisco.