Urban Land: History of a Practitioner’s Magazine: Part 2: 1970–1999: Riding the Cycles

Real estate has always been a boom-and-bust business, and that was quite apparent in Urban Land during the last decades of the 20th century. In the August 1983 article “A Quarter-Century Perspective on Real Estate Markets,” economist Stephen E. Roulac wrote, “if real estate is suffering, so does the economy; and if the economy is strong, real estate activity is likely to be robust, and a strong real estate sector stimulates the economy.” The magazine’s content reflected the changing fortunes of the industry, as did the physical magazine itself—growing from about 20 pages in early 1971 to about 160 pages by late 1999.

1970s: Inflation and oil

In January 1970, Urban Land changed its cover motto from “News and Trends in City Development” to “News and Trends in Land Development,” a reflection of the ever-increasing importance to the organization of what was happening in the suburbs.

Still, Urban Land coverage reflected that cities still mattered to members in the 1970s. In that January 1970 issue, ULI President Earl D. Hollinshead cited “mounting conviction among the Trustees that ULI has an increasing responsibility to investigate ways and means by which the Institute and its members can be helpful in solving problems of our central cities, particularly in the fields of land use and development.” The Trustees concluded, “ULI can probably render the greatest service in the present situation by doing a better job of those things it has always done well and which have contributed to its present stature.” Those perennial topics included population growth, property taxes, land values, and construction and development trends.

In contrast with the generally bullish 1960s, the 1970s economy proved challenging, especially for the boom-and-bust real estate industry. In September 1971, a headline was blazoned in fluorescent orange: “Inflation: Curbing Inflation in Residential Land Prices.”

Articles about housing affordability were frequent through the years. A November 1974 article reported on a housing finance conference where participants said housing was suffering worse than any other sector of the economy and worse than in any other cyclical downturn since World War II. That same year, an ad touting the upcoming annual meeting stated the theme as “Staying Alive in ’75.” A June 1976 article asked, “What Has Happened to the American Family’s Ability to Buy New Homes?” It concluded that inflation, interest rates, and taxes all led to a decline in home-buying power.

Any discussion of the 1970s economy includes worries about energy, spurred by the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. “The power brownouts and blackouts and the fuel crisis, including gasoline rationing and price increases, are early warning signals of deeper and more basic problems that will have an increasing effect on the character of American cities,” a summer 1973 article said. Concerns lingered beyond that year. In February 1974, the magazine looked at “Transportation Planning and the Energy Crisis.” In February 1977, it examined energy conservation.

In the 1970s, energy issues also were linked to rising concern about the environment. The November 1970 issue featured “the developer’s stake in the environment.” With time, ecological issues took on more prominence, especially in how they affected active real estate practitioners. In September 1972, the article “Environment & Development/Striking the Balance” said, “Whether there is an irreconcilable conflict between environment and development depends greatly on the point of view from which one starts. It is clear, though, that the divisions between environmentalists and developers are deepening, confrontations are occurring more frequently, and frustration and anger on both sides are increasing.”

Early in the decade, environmental issues were still new—consider the May 1973 article “Just What is an Environmental Impact Statement?” Interest persisted, as it would long into the future. For instance, the February 1977 issue discussed energy conservation. The next month, the cover package focused on “Environmental Politics.”

Another subject began to catch attention in the 1970s: the growing role of computer technology. The October 1970 cover photo accompanying an article on cash flow analysis captured the image of the era’s IBM tech user, in a white dress shirt, with a terminal, keyboards, and what looks to be an expensive dot matrix printer.

Two signature ULI endeavors made notable strides in the last months of 1979. In that October’s Urban Land, ULI President Michael F. Kelly discussed a new fundraising campaign for what was then the Urban Land Research Foundation (ULRF), founded in 1970: “ULRF has solicited and expended over $330,000 in this effort [to support education and research] but has never enjoyed the broad-based support necessary to create a substantial corpus, which is essential for financial permanence. Our objective in this area will be to establish methods by which our education and research program can be supported on a permanent basis. It will necessarily involve the increased financial support of all ULI members and associates.” In the February 1980 issue, Urban Land listed hundreds of donors who together had pitched in $84,500 to the development campaign.

November 1979’s coverage of that year’s Orlando Fall Meeting captured the presentation of the first-ever Annual Award of Excellence to the Galleria in Houston, a Gerald D. Hines Interests project. The project was summed up in words that also seemed to sum up the organization’s interests: “a unique integration of an urban cultural force within a suburban setting.”

1980s: Building and overbuilding

“Urban Land magazine serves two primary functions,” wrote J. Eric Smart, who edited the magazine in the early 1980s, of its mission. “One function is as a voice box for specific Institute business . . . . The primary role for Urban Land, though, is to disseminate information on responsible land use and development practices.” To do so, the magazine increasingly presented more and shorter articles to cover a wider range of topics each month.

For instance, the June 1980 issue included a ULI statement on ways to reduce housing costs through regulatory reform. The cover story in that same issue looked at the latest federal urban revitalization program, Urban Development Action Grants (UDAG), which had been the subject of ULI-sponsored conferences and publications. The program, the article explained, “is based on the concept that revitalization can best be accomplished by the private sector, with public funds provided to close the gap between feasible and unfeasible private projects in distressed cities.” (UDAG, which spread billions of dollars across U.S. cities before it was killed in 1988, was often controversial. Backers, including many mayors, lauded it; critics labeled it shameless pork-barrel spending.)

Other editions in the early 1980s captured the initial days of what would become megatrends, a term made popular in a 1982 book by that title. The January 1981 cover featured the “Graying of America”—the demographic trend that would crest decades later with the “silver tsunami” of aging Baby Boomers. In May 1982, the cover was “International Investment in U.S. Real Estate: Who, Where and How,” another wave that would build with the years. In October 1982, “Communications Technology: Shifting the Work Place?” foresaw a time when the combination of computers and communications—what the author said had been termed compunications—would change where Americans went to work. “Compunications means businesses need not run centralized data processing and word processing operations,” she wrote.

Throughout the decade, sophisticated articles looked closely at big, complex projects, exploring the conflicts and risks inherent in such work. Frequently, though, the crystal ball was clouded.

David C. Turnley

For instance, an August 1983 article called the proposed—and sprawling—Lincoln West project in New York City “a West Side Story Spanning 20 Years.” The development battle there continued for decades more, and that grand vision was never realized.

In contrast, the next month’s issue included an article on the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach and the failure there of a development moratorium and accompanying knock-it-down redevelopment plan. The conclusion: revitalization without guidance goes nowhere. At the same time, however, Florida historic preservationists were seeding the revival of what would become the booming Art Deco District. In October 1987, Urban Land featured “Miami Beach: Rediscovered” and its “phenomenal” progress. That article looked back on the failed moratorium as “the right idea, the wrong approach.”

In June 1983, the magazine also harked back to another type of complex project, the “new towns” that emerged, starting in the 1960s. Urban Land evaluated ones that succeeded and others that faltered. In that article, the developer of one much-troubled town—St. Charles, Maryland—was quoted as saying, “Nobody could ever have anticipated the three crises of the real estate industry in the last dozen years—two major downturns in the economy and a rise in interest rates.”

Seemingly, no one then anticipated the other big crisis that loomed ahead: the collapse of the savings and loan industry, the closely linked wave of bank failures, and the near-ruin of many people in the real estate industry. TBig Dig S&Ls weathered bad times in the first years of the decade; deregulation in response to those troubles allowed them to move away from home mortgage loans and into other (eventually riskier) lines of business. In January 1985, an editor’s note forecast “a general climate of stability,” and an article about S&Ls found those institutions were past their crisis. (They weren’t.)

In the meantime, ULI celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1986, and Urban Land joined in. The cover of the January issue proclaimed, “Pioneering Development Solutions.” Inside was an article about the Institute’s founding and its earliest days. Throughout that year, the magazine ran a series of articles looking back on decades of trends, sector by sector. April’s article was “Structuring Suburbia: ULI Promotes Community Building.” In May, it was “The City Fights Back,” and in June, “Instant Main Street: The Shopping Center Saga.” As that article said, “Perhaps no other single type of development is as closely intertwined with the ULI as the shopping center.” The mainstay ULI publication Dollars & Cents of Shopping Centers was first published in 1960, and preparation of its 10th edition capped the anniversary year. These solid volumes of numbers were billed as “comprehensive data tables slice and dice information on income and expenses for all types, sizes, and ages of shopping centers and their tenants. A useful resource, the book aids government officials in understanding potential tax benefits and helps developers, owners, and investors that seek benchmarks.”

Coverage of shopping centers, downtown development, housing options, and other core ULI topics continued, often from multiple perspectives in multiple issues. For instance, a June 1987 article, “The Future Doesn’t Work,” pointed out that traffic congestion “is surfacing as the development issue of the 1980s.” A September piece looked at “Traffic Congestion and Growth Limitation Policies.” In December, a pair of articles discussed “the mobility crisis.” As a note from the editor stated, “ULI members are keenly aware of finding solutions to the transportation problems that give growth a bad name.”

By mid-1988, yet another overbuilding-fueled real estate bust was clearly underway, amid mounting problems at S&Ls and banks. The June 1988 cover featured an illustration with characters from the comic strip The Wizard of Id, lending a light note to the accompanying article, “Reorganizing a Business Under Chapter 11.” In September 1988, the topic was “Getting Along with FSLIC or FDIC,” the two federal agencies then overseeing the closure and resolution of thrifts and banks. (In 1989, FSLIC was shut down, and the job of selling off thrift assets—mostly real estate and real estate loans—moved to the new Resolution Trust Corp.)

Amid the industry’s troubles, ULI members were still gazing toward the future. A 1989 readership survey found that “of all the subjects covered by Urban Land, its readers are most interested in long-term trends and national/regional development trends.”

Near decade’s close, in December 1989, the article “Looking to the 1990s” presented the views of nine well-known developers, including Greelaw “Fritz” Grupe, Jr., Sheridan Ing, William McCall, Wayne Ratkovick, Willard Rouse, Charles Shaw, Melvin Simon, John Temple, and J. Ron Terwilliger. In summary, that article said, “The tone of ULI members in assessing what’s likely for the next decade is sober, but not dire.”

1990s: Up from the bottom

Even if some in the industry were optimistic, the early 1990s were all about coping with the fallout from the S&L and banking crisis and the big bust that followed. In the words of developer Sam Zell at ULI’s 1990 Fall Meeting, the goal was staying alive until ’95 (an echo, perhaps, of decades earlier, when the meeting theme was “Staying Alive in ’75.”)

In February 1992, Urban Land said about the 1991 Fall Meeting, “How can developers and other real estate professionals survive (or even thrive) in the 1990s? That appeared to be the question most on the minds of speakers and attendees.” In conjunction with that meeting, ULI surveyed members of its councils. An April 1992 piece, “The Depressed State of the Real Estate Industry,” summed up the survey results.

During those rough years, articles in the magazine examined numerous aspects of survival. In January 1990, it was “Recovering Value from RTC-controlled land.” In May 1991, it was “Making Workouts Work”; in July 1992, “Transitioning from Development to Fee Management.”

January 1992 brought one of the most dramatic changes to the magazine in 50 years: the inclusion of advertisements. “With the help of the revenue from advertising,” wrote Editor Libby Howland, “beginning in this issue [Urban Land] intends to become a more up-to-date, high-impact forum for descriptions of projects and process, discussions of techniques, and analyses of development and land use trends. The aim is to be practical while bringing the insights of practitioners to readers who are also practitioners in the land use and development community.”

Immediately, the monthly issues were fatter—56 pages or more—and glossier. Cover imagery, which frequently featured a single project, offered eye-catching examples of architectural photography. The magazine often sat on the reception-area coffee tables not only of developers but also of lawyers, engineers, and architects. In a reader survey published in the January 1993 issue, 70 percent of respondents rated the magazine as useful, 14 percent as highly useful, and just 15 percent as not useful. Those readers continued to rate coverage of demographic, economic, or industry trends by far as the most important content.

In November 1993, the magazine reported on the resurgence of real estate investment trusts, as developers and building owners in need of capital sold shares in public markets. Dozens of firms recapitalized in public markets that year, Urban Land wrote.

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, creating a Canada/Mexico/United States free trade zone. That year, ULI held its Spring Meeting in San Diego, about 20 miles from the Mexican border, and Urban Land began to publish a Spanish-language version of its table of contents in each issue. The decision to do so—even as articles remained in English—is never explained in the magazine’s pages, nor is it explained a year later, when those tables no longer appear. In 1994, the ULI Awards also added an international category, an indication that the organization was becoming more global, with more non–U.S. members.

As time goes by, articles more often spotlight evolving technology, such as the May 1994 piece on geographic information systems. At the beginning of 1995, ULI went online—or, rather, a test group of members began using ULI Online. Urban Land then got its own email address (or E-mail, as it was styled then)—the very mid-1990s-looking [email protected] (no, that address is no longer live).

By mid-1995, as the economy improved, developers were testing the waters for projects that, not long before, would have been unrealistic. The August 1995 Urban Land includes a special supplement, “Urban Entertainment Centers,” which the magazine dubs “the hottest of topics.” The November 1995 issue looked at surging multifamily development and discussed financing opportunities for apartment projects. In May 1996, articles focused on opportunities in the then-booming office market sector, as well as in retail and hotels. In November 1996, an article titled “The U.S. Apartment Market Moves Into the Development Phase” predicted that the overbuilding of the 1980s would not be repeated.

North Coast Development Coordinators

The surging industry’s health was reflected in Urban Land. Issues kept getting fatter, with plenty of ads reflecting growing prosperity. By October 1997, nearing that year’s Fall Meeting in New York, the magazine was 144 pages. By early 1998, issues were so big that each one covered an ever-growing number of topics: projects, specific cities, suburbs in general. Once again, some notes of “this time, it’s different” resounded. For instance, the September 1998 issue, in advance of the Fall Meeting in Dallas, declared that city’s real estate market “hotter than hot.” There was even an article—“A New, Improved Real Estate Cycle?”—about the Dallas apartment market, predicting that the industry had learned its lessons and would moderate overbuilding.

In November 1999, the “last issue of Urban Land to be published in the 20th century” recapped trends of recent years—urban entertainment projects, town centers, downtown housing, fighting sprawl, defining “smart growth.” “What is ahead?” asked Editor Kristina Kessler. “The economic picture for real estate looks bright, but a more globally connected world is also a more competitive one. Of primary importance will be structuring and managing real estate businesses to handle accelerated change—getting smarter and faster in both attitude and technology.”