The ULI Robert C. Larson Leadership Initiative held five programs at the 2011 Real Estate Summit at the Spring Council Forum in Phoenix. Read what participants learned from a breakfast cohosted by the ULI Women’s Leadership Initiative, a panel on “Next Generation Cities,” and in sessions titled the Leadership Lab and “Leadership Lessons from the Pros.”

Among the unconventional projects to win a 2011 ULI Award for Excellence is Burnside Rocket, an infill development in Portland, Oregon, that has a ground-floor pub, two levels of shared office space, a top-floor restaurant, and a rooftop garden. Read about the unconventional approach the developer, Kevin Cavenaugh, has taken toward sharing his projects and ideas with others.

While a new federal transportation bill is unlikely before 2012, at the same time local governments are becoming increasingly sophisticated and innovative in using local financing tools to fund transit investments, including those for streetcars. Read about the dim prospects for transportation legislation and the bright ideas local governments are using to find ways to build streetcar systems.

Across the country, cities and stakeholders seeking to build new streetcar and light-rail systems are using various funding methods to put together the funding necessary to build and operate the lines, said experts at the Spring Council Forum. Read how all this is playing out against a backdrop of uncertainty at the national level about the size and direction of the federal transportation program.

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.

The U.S. residential rental sector is starting to experience a surge in demand from three consumer groups: people who lost their homes to foreclosure during the housing market collapse; would-be owners who soured on homeownership due to the collapse and are choosing to continue renting; and entry-level “generation Y” workers entering the housing market. Read what this means for landlords in 2011.

New partnership models, coupled with greatly expanded private sector involvement, will be needed if cities are to build the urban transit infrastructure that is in high demand across the country, experts said during a panel at ULI’s Spring Council Forum in Phoenix. Learn what new partnerships and strategies leaders in Dallas and Los Angeles are using to move forward with streetcar investments.

Since the nation is experiencing a “jobless recovery,” new office development is stagnant to nonexistent in most U.S. markets, conclude panelists at ULI’s Spring Council Forum. They agree that success in the office market will be measured submarket by submarket, and that for the immediate future, office development will mainly involve reusing and repositioning existing assets.

“In the next 15 years, just 600 global cities are projected to account for 60 percent of all economic activity,” said Michael Crow, president of ASU, in a closing keynote speech at the ULI Spring Council Forum. This will put the burden on cities, rather than nation-states, to secure their own competitiveness. Read how this challenge has fueled the university’s new role within the Phoenix region.

In the current environment of budget cuts, how does infrastructure for projects get financed? Four national experts at a panel discussion on public/private partnerships at the ULI Spring Council Forum said that public financing is not dead, but that it’s critical to demonstrate value for money. Read their suggestions about how projects can still pencil out with cities so financially strapped.