In an era when the demand for attainable housing continues to outpace supply, sustainable workforce housing is a necessary and prudent investment decision based on three key market trends. Primarily, the demand for attainable housing is growing. Workforce rental housing is increasingly sought after, particularly given dwindling affordability and growing barriers to home ownership. Last but not least, generational demand contributes to the rise of sustainable multifamily housing.

Commercial real estate loans totaling almost $1.8 trillion are set to mature before the end of 2026, according to Trepp. One sign of the accompanying stress is the commercial mortgage–backed security (CMBS) special servicing rate, with its latest numbers inching up to 8.2 percent, the highest since June 2021.

In early April 2024, Small Change, an investment crowdfunding platform for real estate development with social impact, and Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund (BREIF) jointly announced an investment opportunity in a $430 million life sciences building under development by Related Beal. The property—at 22 Drydock Avenue, in Boston’s Seaport District—is slated to be the city’s first life sciences building to achieve LEED Platinum and net-zero carbon emissions.

ULI San Francisco recently hosted a panel revisiting the recommendations made by ULI Advisory Servies panelists to revive the downtown and highlighting the progress that has been made.

1933 postal distribution center made over for indoor/outdoor office and Manhattan’s largest rooftop park

Frequently cited as one of America’s best airports, Portland International Airport (PDX) will unveil its ZGF-designed, expanded main terminal in August, with completion set for 2025. Instead of building an entirely new airport, much of PDX’s existing infrastructure was reused.

Debra March, the two-time Mayor of Henderson, Nevada’s second-largest city, has been named as the chair of ULI Nevada for a two-year term. March will also speak about her leadership at the 2024 ULI Fall Meeting in Las Vegas.

The National Retail Federation’s Hot 25 Retailers ranks the nation’s fastest-growing retail companies. Rankings are determined by increases in domestic sales between 2022 and 2023; all retail companies with global sales in excess of $2 billion, and key format leaders were eligible. 

Las Vegas is betting on significant investment in public transportation to help generate thousands of new real estate developments along major city streets such as Maryland Parkway, one of the city’s most important corridors outside of the Las Vegas Strip.

ASTM International, a standards-setting organization, has released a new standard guide for assessing a property’s degree of resilience to physical climate hazards, thus marking a key milestone in the process of scaling up climate adaptation in real estate and the built environment. As property losses and disruption from such hazards as storms, wildfires, and floods continue to rise, the new standard guide, ASTM E3429—the Property Resilience Assessment—is designed to provide real estate owners, developers, investors, insurers, lenders, design teams, and regulators with a consistent means of determining how resilient a given property is and, potentially, what would be needed to better protect it.

ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate held roundtable discussions with members of the ULI Americas Sustainable Development Council, the ULI Asia Pacific Net Zero Council, and the ULI Europe Sustainability Council to inform an outlook for 2025. During the discussions, members addressed sustainability topics and issues that are on the rise, why they matter, and what actions the industry should pursue in the future. Based on expert knowledge shared by those who attended, ULI identified five issues that will shape real estate decision-making in the coming months.

On January 7, 2025, when sparks began igniting the communities of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena, Altadena, Hollywood, and others, the city of Los Angeles had been struggling to produce 486,379 new housing units by 2029, a number mandated by California’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to address the shortfall.

The former head of the European Commission told ULI real estate leaders that global tensions will continue to shape their day-to-day decisions.

From the Institute’s iconic Emerging Trends in Real Estate® United States and Canada 2024—to in-depth reporting on distressed debt and opportunities, the rise of industrial outdoor storage, and the “YIGBY” movement (“Yes, In God’s Backyard”), this ranked list reflects Urban Land magazine readers’ top choices for the first half of the year.

Making infill development easier, adding a state role to local land-use controls, and connecting housing with transit were some of the top trends in housing policy that emerged on May 9 at the 2024 ULI/Charles H. Shaw Forum on Urban Community Issues. The forum topic, “State and Local Innovations to Expand Housing Opportunities,” reflected something that many communities around the United States are grappling with: dire housing shortages.