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After years of planning, the first phase of one of Washington, D.C.’s most ambitious projects, the Wharf, opened in October. The Wharf is but one of the ambitious real estate developments planned, under construction, or recently completed along waterfronts in America’s Mid-Atlantic region, including D.C., Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

A key goal of Seattle’s Bullitt Center project is to demonstrate that by holistically integrating a synergistic combination of performance-based design, engineering, and operating strategies, a good-sized commercial office development can achieve those zero nets today—without heavy reliance on overly complex or highly customized systems.

Hong Kong Central remained the most expensive office market in the world, according to CBRE’s annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costsreport. Hong Kong Central’s overall prime occupancy costs of US$307 per square foot (US$3,305 per sq m) per year topped the “most expensive” list, followed by London’s West End, Beijing’s Finance Street, and Hong Kong’s Kowloon.

ULI MEMBER–ONLY CONTENT: Hong Kong real estate developer Adrian Cheng is investing heavily in China’s emerging Greater Bay Area, touted as the up-and-coming Silicon Valley and Wall Street of the East. During ULI Asia Pacific’s virtual REimagine conference, Cheng said that his company now controls a land bank of about 290 hectares (nearly 717 acres) in the region.

The Pullman Historic District in Chicago has been declared a national monument by President Obama, who returned to his hometown on February 19 to deliver the announcement. ULI Chicago members as well as state and local officials hailed the designation as a turning point for the site, home to the long-shuttered Pullman Palace Car Company.

Andreas Heym, director of development for consultants AREP, narrated a tour of French high speed rail stations, and how they connect urban-planning loose ends in many cities, from large metropolises to country towns. Jeff Heller, partner with Heller Manus Architects, and a member of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s high speed rail China delegation, discussed aspects of China’s approach to development of high speed rail.

Although social media are one way to support branding and awareness, developers who rely solely on them to attract buyers might—in light of today’s economy—also reconsider old-fashioned marketing.

Any day now, New York City will open a grand public space at the middle of a web of subway lines in Manhattan, a few blocks away from both the World Trade Center and Wall Street.

The so-called redline drawn around the Phoenix market by investors seems to have been erased, says Steve Betts, chair of ULI Arizona. He attributes the metropolitan area’s resurgence to HEAT—Health care, Energy, Aerospace/defense, and Technology. Read what other local players are saying about this uptick in activity and why it appears that the road to recovery will be a long and bumpy one.

Many trends have converged to create today’s epidemic of obesity and lack of physical fitness, agreed speakers at ULI’s Spring Meeting in San Diego. Real estate developers have the opportunity to contribute to a reversal of at least some of these trends by creating more healthy communities.