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While the construction industry is a significant contributor to economic growth in Singapore and the region, it has been plagued by low productivity and insufficient investment in innovation over the years. A panel discussion at a ULI Singapore conference brought together expert speakers from the public and private sectors to touch on some of the new technologies—ranging from prefabricated construction methods to 3-D modeling systems—that are being used by industry players, and what more needs to be done to encourage wider adoption of these solutions.

A new generation of software platforms could do everything from monitoring buildings’ energy and water use in real time to providing tenant workforces with on-site access to medical treatment services, said panelists at ULI’s Spring Meeting.

The success of ULI’s 2019 Spring Meeting—which drew 4,300 attendees, the highest ever for a Spring Meeting—is indicative of the Institute’s ongoing efforts to improve the member experience, ULI Global Chief Executive Officer Ed Walter said in remarks at the meeting’s closing session. He praised outgoing Global Chairman Thomas Toomey for his leadership in the creation and implementation of ULI’s Global Strategic Plan, which seeks to strengthen member engagement and impact.

Speaking at the ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville, bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham said that as far back in America’s history as the Revolutionary War, Americans have been able to change their minds and switch sides on many issues. “America was founded on the idea that we could think our way through problems,” he said.

No introduction required for the Empire State Building, likely the most famous office building in the world. Already an icon and a historic landmark, it is also becoming a symbol of the future, thanks to a showcase renovation that overhauled the bones of the 88-year-old structure, and ongoing efforts to implement ULI’s Tenant Energy Optimization Program (TEOP), the focus of a half-day event in that building in July.

The wave of interest in well-being in the United Kingdom is expected to translate into significant investment over the next three years, according to ULI research released in the report Picture of Health: The Growing Role of Wellbeing in Commercial Real Estate Investment Decision-making. The report was released this month at an event in Birmingham, England, by the ULI U.K. Sustainability Forum to highlight the rise of well-being investment in commercial buildings.

The Washington Housing Initiative wants to put capital to work to preserve a dwindling supply of workforce housing across the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, bringing together a large group of public and private stakeholders—including experienced multifamily developers, owners, and operators—to create a strategic model addressing the workforce housing shortage that can be shared broadly with other communities battling the same problem.

Amazon’s choice to locate a second headquarters in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is highlighting the region’s need to provide an ever-increasing number of educated workers to fill new technology jobs each year. While many groups are working to address this issue, the Greater Washington Partnership (GWP) has launched a well-funded effort to “create impact at scale.” GWP’s Capital CoLAB—which stands for Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business—is moving quickly to carry out its mission and already has garnered more than $6 million in grants.

The best bets for real estate investment and development—including markets and industry sectors—for next year will be highlighted at the 2019 ULI Fall Meeting, set for September 18–21 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. These predictions and other observations on industry trends are included in the 2020 Americas edition of Emerging Trends in Real Estate ^®, the highly anticipated real estate forecast copublished each year by ULI and PwC.

Founded by Goldie B. Wolfe Miller in 2007 to give back to the industry and help young women in the real estate field find their way to the C-suite, the Goldie Initiative has assisted more than 100 scholars from 16 top real estate graduate schools across the United States, with a record 28 scholars named in 2021.