President Donald Trump has said that his administration is working to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and end the government-controlled conservatorship of the two that has been in place since the 2008 housing crash. The plan being floated involves taking the two entities public while retaining key U.S. government guarantees to backstop loans.

Experts explore new underwriting models and tax increment financing districts to fund the rebuilding of homes and infrastructure

The 27th annual ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast points toward positive, but also toward sharply lower expectations for GDP and job growth this year. The consensus forecast calls for GDP growth to decline to 1.3 percent this year—a 150-basis-point drop compared to 2024.

As it contends with the same post-pandemic challenges that confront other urban cores nationwide, downtown Denver is leveraging public/private partnerships to bring back vitality. At the ULI 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, five leaders involved with the city’s revitalization shared recent successes and plans for Denver’s future.

Becoming an architect was always the goal for ULI Global Chair Diane Hoskins. “I’ve always loved buildings,” she said during the WLI Americas Presents a View from the Top session at the ULI 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, where she was interviewed by Emma West, partner at Bousfields Inc. and ULI Chair of the Women’s Leadership Initiative’s Americas Executive Committee.

The setup is printed on the game board: “The empty piece of land was previously occupied by a large shopping mall. After years of decline, the mall was eventually closed and left abandoned. Its closure created a clean slate—free of historical preservation concerns and extensive land remediation—offering a blank canvas for the future development of this community.”

Five experts from ULI’s Residential Neighborhood Development Council discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead for homebuilders; what buyers and renters want from their neighborhoods, and how they value sustainability and resilience; what state and local housing policies are effectively encouraging housing construction; and other trends.

At the ULI Spring Meeting 2025 session “Mastering Innovation: Tech-Driven Transformation of Planned Communities,” two prominent community developers—Laura Cole, senior vice president at Lakewood Ranch, and Fred Balda, president of Hillwood Communities—discussed how digital tools and data are reshaping large-scale developments. Moderated by Cecilian Partners’ Philip Worland, the conversation highlighted the role of technology in revolutionizing both front-end and back-end operations in the master-planned community (MPC) sector.

Zed Smith is the chief operating officer for The Cordish Companies. In that capacity—now for almost a decade—Smith oversees all aspects of the company’s operating properties portfolio, which includes numerous high-profile entertainment, mixed-use, and sports-anchored developments located in urban communities nationwide. Many of those developments have been transformative, thanks to their economic and cultural impact.

The ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate and the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) brought together executives in the commercial real estate and property insurance industry on May 13, 2025, in conjunction with the ULI Spring Meeting and Resilience Summit in Denver, Colorado, to discuss strategies for operating in this environment of growing risk. As Mary Ludgin, event facilitator and senior advisor at Heitman, noted, “Increased conversation between property owners and insurers is a crucial step in managing risk and controlling costs in a tumultuous time of heightened physical risk.”

The ULI Net Zero Imperative (NZI) is ULI’s multiyear initiative to accelerate decarbonization in the built environment and advance the organization’s net zero mission priority. Implemented by the ULI Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate, key programs include Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs), which are intense three-day engagements during which a panel of ULI member experts and partners help clients or sponsors, often local governments, think through strategies for advancing their net zero goals.

The new ULI report explores how developers can find both profit and purpose by embracing the potential of existing buildings, illustrated through three case studies that generated tangible value for communities and investors alike.

At a panel at the 2025 ULI Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, legal experts shared their insights on how developers, planners, and housing advocates can better navigate the myriad barriers and evolving legal framework at federal, state, and local levels to advance affordable housing projects and initiatives.

Three-time Paralympian medalist, Denver resident, bestselling author, and motivational speaker Amy Purdy shared her inspirational story during the closing session of the 2025 ULI Spring Meeting.

The Lewis Center for Sustainability Forum commemorated the 10th anniversary of its Building Healthy Places Toolkit, a pivotal resource designed to integrate health and wellness into real estate development. The forum—held on the first day of ULI’s 2025 Spring Meeting, in Denver, Colorado—brought together industry leaders, each of whom highlighted the toolkit’s significant impact and the evolving focus on health within the built environment.