ULI Home > Development Business > Redeveloping in Difficult Times
by Kristina Kessler, September 1, 2010
With smaller homes, urban lifestyles, and sustainable communities among the forces that will shape the future of real estate development, what redevelopment opportunities exist now worth pursuing?
Many urban neighborhoods across the United States are experiencing dramatic transformation, including the metro Washington, D.C., area, this issue’s market focus. Parking lots, underused commercial properties, and former industrial sites are being replaced by condos, apartments, and townhouses, many in mixed-use developments. In fact, in eight U.S. regions, redevelopment in urban neighborhoods accounts for between one fourth and one half of all new construction this year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
With echo boomers eventually outnumbering their parent’s generation, this new housing market will not necessarily view real estate as a safe investment, which could mean higher demand for rental housing. For those echo boomers who will prefer to send their children to public schools in the suburbs, suburban town centers with amenities... [more]
ULI Home > Economy, Markets, & Trends > A Model for Growth: Walkable Urbanism
by Christopher Leinberger, September 1, 2010
Ten changes found in metropolitan Washington, D.C., will be coming to a metro area near you.
1. While there are numerous new or redeveloped walkable bedroom communities, it is the walk-able urban places of regional significance that are the most important. It is in these places that employment concentrates, education and health institutions are established, and entertainment, cultural, and sports venues locate. High-density, for-sale residential development also occurs in these regionally significant walkable places to take advantage of amenities such as restaurants, retail businesses, cultural events, and maybe even the ability to walk to work, even though the majority of the square footage developed is income-producing. The growth in regionally significant walkable urban places has been greater in metro D.C. than in any other metropolitan area in the country over the past 15 years or so. [more]
