Property Types
Hotels and Resorts
After undergoing the worst downturn in revenue and demand since the Great Depression, the hospitality industry made a rapid recovery in 2010. While markets like New York, Boston, Miami, and San Francisco are back to prerecession peaks, other markets are seeing increases only in the number of rooms booked, rather than pricing. Find out what else was said about this at the ULI Spring Council Forum.
Resort communities and hotels have suffered the blows of the recession and are beginning to see the light of day. A panel of developers at ULI’s 2011 Spring Council Forum in Phoenix discussed just how this sector is faring and where the opportunities lie now. Read to what degree the panelists think the resort sector is emerging from the recession.
According to Trepp LLC, the U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) delinquency rate (comprised of the percentage of loans 30+ days delinquent, in foreclosure, or held on the books of the lender as real estate owned (REO)) increased 23 basis points (0.23 percent) in April to 9.65 percent, the highest rate in history and the largest increase on a monthly basis since December 2010. See the break out by property sector and read the key takeaways.
Industrial
Dynamic, large-scale projects that create new centers of activity can be catalysts of downtown revitalization. Sundance Square in Fort Worth, the Columbia Heights revitalization in D.C., and L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles—the three 2010 ULI Awards for Excellence winners—are recent examples. Read how these projects created benefits that extend well beyond the neighborhoods where they stand.
2010 ended on a strong note with all-in 10-year mortgage spreads in 5.25%+/- range which should have proved attractive to all but the most jaded investors. But as they say, it’s still “early days” and few lenders have announced plans and targets for 2011.
This week’s Monday’s Numbers should be subtitled: “Credit Suisse Group Sells $2.8 Billion European Commercial Property Loan Portfolio for $1.2 Billion”
Mixed-Use
When Alex Morrison, executive director of the Urban Development Authority for Macon-Bibb County, Georgia, started on a comprehensive plan for downtown revitalization, “we knew we wanted walkability and housing,” he said. “But the how and where [were] driven by the public process.” His emphasis on community engagement drove home a point in a new guidebook, (Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for Revitalization, from Smart Growth America.
In a unique collaboration, the American Museum of Natural History brings its traveling exhibits to a new development in Overland Park, Kansas.
Hushan North Bund transforms a former commercial dock into a vibrant mixed-use development.
Multifamily
Successful development of 20-minute communities in Black and brown neighborhoods requires community involvement and ownership, according to panelists who explored the topic at ULI’s 2021 Fall Meeting.
Khoo Teng Chye, the new chair of ULI Asia Pacific, began his three-year term in July, succeeding Nicholas Brooke, chairman of Professional Property Services in Hong Kong. An urban planner based in Singapore, Khoo teaches at the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore. Previously, he was executive director of Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities and chief executive officer of PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency.
Nearly 800 structures were converted to apartment buildings during the 2010s, the highest number in the past seven decades, according to research by data provider Yardi Matrix. Chicago tops the list of U.S. cities with the most adaptive-use apartment buildings, whereas New York City is home to the most converted apartment units in total.
Office
Agile workplaces, equipped with the right technology to accommodate remote and in-person employees, and with equitable access to work-supporting resources, are likely to emerge in the pandemic’s aftermath, said experts from Zendesk, Gensler, and LinkedIn.
Culture, amenities, and locale are vitally important in drawing in today’s modern workforce, but COVID-19 is throwing a wrench into project planning. ULI Virtual Fall Meeting panelists discussed their projects, the idea of tech campuses, urban planning, and placemaking, comparing approaches and offering lessons learned from their projects.
Office workers across the Asia Pacific region are returning to the office at varying paces, taking into consideration government directives and company policies. Though the permanent impact of remote working remains to be seen, landlords will need to innovate and adapt to a changed environment, said participants in ULI Asia Pacific’s latest FutuRE of Cities and Communities webinar.
Residental
Behind the new home construction, park improvements, and a rising downtown skyline that are attracting out-of-state migration, some longtime families in Boise, Idaho, are struggling to afford housing in a market that has seen rents more than double in the past decade.
Hospitality, tourism, and medical services remain the largest industries driving Florida’s economy; but hotel and restaurant workers, nurses, and hospital administration employees often struggle to find suitable housing in the state’s largest cities. Panelists at the 2018 ULI Florida Summit discussed innovative solutions to the problem.
Two architects address ten common concerns about shrinking parking requirements.
Retail
As aging retail continue to evolve, one increasingly popular trend has been to redesign malls as town centers—recalling a time when such commercial districts were the heart and soul of a community. Mall–to–town center retrofits are emerging throughout the nation, especially in suburban communities, where pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use environments are highly attractive to millennials now raising families.
Consumers have kept a steady foot on the gas this year. A record-high 197 million consumers shopped in stores or online over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). The NRF forecasts that holiday sales will grow between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent, with total retail spending in the United States falling between $979.5 billion and $989 billion during November and December. That forecast also is consistent with NRF’s annual U.S. sales growth—between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent—for 2024.
After a quiet first half of 2024, CMBS originations increased 59 percent in Q3 on a year-over-year basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Quarterly Survey.