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Civic leaders, including public officials and private developers, must be proactive and prepared to take risks if they want to develop their cities for the new economy, ULI Senior Fellow Tom Murphy said at the ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville. Cities are facing unprecedented changes in a variety of arenas, including cultural, technological, economic, and demographic. At a session titled “Smart Choices in a Changing World,” ULI’s senior fellows debated ways that cities can thrive in a new economy while creating a sustainable workforce for future needs.

In remarks made at the Spring Meeting’s opening general session, ULI Americas Chairman Jack Chandler shared thoughts on the importance of the Institute’s Global Strategic Plan in strengthening member engagement and impact. The plan, which is based on feedback from members on how to improve ULI, is designed to “create a more rewarding and personalized member experience, and allow initiatives in areas such as affordable housing, community resilience, and industry diversity to be scaled up for broader application and greater effect,” Chandler said.

The civil rights struggle of 50 years ago—Nashville was the first southern city to desegregate public services, setting an example for activists throughout the South—continues today, but now it is more focused on economic equality. That was the main takeaway from a ULI Spring Meeting session during which panelists discussed how much the civil rights struggle has achieved and how much further it has to go.

The property surrounding the San Diego–Tijuana border crossing offers many opportunities, said ULI members speaking at a panel discussion in October. But the San Ysidro crossing—the busiest border crossing in the world—remains a daunting, congested funnel for binational business. A recent ULI technical advisory panel looked at solutions to make better use of the surrounding land.

A first-time gathering of ULI product council members—drawing attendees from councils focused on multifamily housing and affordable and workforce housing—convened at the 2018 ULI Fall Meeting in Boston to marshal ideas from some of the industry’s leading minds. For near-term action, participants sounded a call for creating a national playbook for local and state-level implementation, a compendium of strategies employed successfully in jurisdictions across the United States that could be adopted elsewhere.

The hunt for secure long-term income is driving European real estate investment as the industry hedges against potential interest rate increases and an uncertain geopolitical backdrop, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate ^® Europe 2019. The annual report, published jointly by ULI and PwC, is based on the opinions of over 800 real estate professionals in Europe, including investors, developers, lenders, and advisers.

ULI has named J. Phillip Horne, former chief development officer of George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, as the chief advancement officer for the Urban Land Institute Foundation. The ULI Foundation, now in its 48th year, provides philanthropic support for ULI’s mission-focused programs, such as activities from its Terwilliger Center for Housing, Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance, Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate, ULI’s Advisory Services program, and UrbanPlan.

The overall availability rate for U.S. office space was unchanged as of the end of the third quarter of 2018, remaining at 18.1 percent, according to the latest Savills Studley Report: National Office Sector from commercial services firm Savills Studley. San Francisco remains the tightest market in the country, with an availability rate of 9 percent, followed by Boston/Suffolk County, 9.7 percent; New York City, 11.6 percent; and Austin, 12.8 percent.

San Antonio’s office and residential developers are backing up their commitment to sustainability with innovative projects that are saving energy, water, and money. Executives from three companies described their efforts at the ULI San Antonio Sustainability Forum in February.

Speaking at a recent ULI event in Fort Lauderdale, Dean Trantalis, mayor of Fort Lauderdale, was joined by Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen and Jenni Morejon, the president and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority, on a panel discussing some of the short-term policies being implemented to make major strides for local residents, tourists, and companies alike.