Two of the three leading indicators for U.S. commercial real estate ended 2024 on an upbeat note, particularly on the lending and construction phase, while design billing continued to lag.

Speakers mixed good news and uncertainty at the “ULI New York: Real Estate Outlook 2025" event, held January 22, 2025, at the Stern School of Business at New York University in Manhattan by ULI New York in partnership with NYU Stern | Chen Institute.

According to Morningstar DBRS, the Los Angeles–area wildfires have caused record property damage, with insured losses that could reach more than $30 billion. Despite many uncertainties on the path ahead for recovery and rebuilding of property and infrastructure, solutions are likely to require a lot of time and capital, as well as public and private stakeholders working in tandem.

Business and political leaders are quick to celebrate mixed-use developments as a way to build sustainable, vibrant, and resilient communities. The journey from conception to ribbon-cutting can be daunting, though. At their outset, these developments face cyclical challenges, such as high interest rates, increased construction costs, labor shortages, and access to capital. Then come structural challenges, such as hybrid work models, changing retail habits, demographic shifts, and rising environmental expectations. Together, these things make completing mixed-use developments complex.

In the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, two not-for-profit organizations—Fresh Hope Communities, the public benevolent institution entity of churches of Christ in NSW and ACT, and Nightingale Housing of Brunswick, Victoria—came together to develop a building that contains 54 units renting at 80 percent of market rates as well as two community-focused commercial spaces. The Churches of Christ Property Trust has provided a 99 year lease for the land, which allows the units to remain affordable far beyond a more typical 10-year period.

Architecture is a profession steeped in tradition, built on a romantic story of young talent learning at the drafting tables of those who have mastered their craft. This generations-old tale carries on, but how practical or healthy is it for us to hold on to this story today?

The June 1982 issue of Urban Land. Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, Hamtramck Mayor Robert Kozaren, and General Motors Chairman Roger Smith pose before the remains of Chrysler’s former Dodge Main plant at a formal project groundbreaking in May 1981.

When Ballantyne first emerged out of North Carolina farmland, more than 30 years ago, the original developers of this master-planned project already had a concrete vision in mind for its future: evolution. The development team intrinsically understood that, as Ballantyne—an affluent community nestled in south Charlotte—would expand beyond its farmland roots, the project would need to adapt to meet the needs of a more diverse and changing demographic.

A major investment in the long-term future of professional soccer is set to dramatically transform the last major land parcel in downtown Oklahoma City. Thanks to a successful public/private partnership, America’s 20^th-largest city is seeing a continued resurgence in its downtown.

In anticipation of the ULI Resilience Summit, the Institute’s annual climate adaptation event to be held May 15, 2025, in Denver, Colorado, Urban Land spoke with Karen Mahrous, a member of the ULI Programs Committee who helped shaped the event’s content, to learn more about what attendees can expect at this flagship event.

The United States had record-breaking renewable energy growth in 2024, with renewables—including wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower—and battery storage making up 30 percent of the country’s large-scale power-generating capacity. Real estate is on board, positioned to confront some of the challenges facing clean energy in the U.S., especially as electricity demand is predicted to soar during the next five years.

Ten years ago, ULI released the Building Healthy Places Toolkit: Strategies for Enhancing Health in the Built Environment report. The Toolkit, developed by ULI in partnership with the Center for Active Design, offered 21 practical and tactical evidence-based strategies and recommendations that real estate leaders can employ to improve the health outcomes of residents and building users.

When my wife and I moved back to the Los Angeles area in 2000, we bought a three-bedroom Spanish-style home two blocks south of the Altadena/Pasadena border, and just a few blocks from the neighborhoods lost in the Eaton fire this past January. It was a special home for us: our first child was born there, and we loved starting our family in such a racially and socio-economically diverse residential community.

ULI and research partner RCLCO have released the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing’s 2025 Home Attainability Index, a data-rich tool measuring affordability, connectivity, racial disparity, and growth across the United States at the MSA, county, and census tract levels.

ULI New York recently hosted a panel “The Changing Face of Commercial Real Estate—a Program in Recognition of Black History Month,” through a partnership among ULI New York, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), and Council of Urban Real Estate (CURE), at REBNY’s Manhattan office, highlighting successful professionals of color.