Recap and Resources from the 2017 ULI Fall Meeting

November 8, 2017

A couple of weeks ago Los Angeles, California welcomed nearly 7,000 of the world’s foremost leaders – including over 60 ULI Philadelphia members – in the real estate and land use industry for the 2017 ULI Fall Meeting. From October 23-26 members toured notable developments, presented innovative projects, and shared lessons learned and best practices. A robust schedule included sessions focused on equitable development, technology and transportation, urbanization, affordable housing, healthy communities, historic preservation and more.

Key Takeaways

Equitable development was at the forefront of numerous conversations. Presenters discussed how equitable financing, historic preservation, policy and private sector leadership all play a crucial role in ensuring equitable development in growing cities.

ULI and the National Trust for Historic Preservation presented their Partnership for Building Reuse Reports, summarizing recommendations from research in five cities, including the City of Brotherly Love. The original report, Retrofitting Philadelphia: What can be done to extend the benefits of revitalization to more neighborhoods and citizens of Philadelphia, explores the challenges and opportunities related to building reuse in places with a large stock of older, smaller buildings. Read more on strategies and recommendations in the full report, Untapped Potential: Strategies for Revitalization and Reuse.

Equitable community development also includes equitable access to parks and green space. ULI, the Trust for Public Land and the National Parks Association highlighted the Ten-Minute Walk Campaign, which aims to ensure that all urban dwellers are within a ten-minute walk to a quality park. Mayor Kenney signed on to the Campaign and ULI PHL is committed to supporting this initiative locally. Learn more about the campaign here.

Numerous sessions explored how technology drives development, specifically how the transportation revolution impacts real estate. Ride-hailing apps and driverless vehicles will combine to dramatically reduce transportation costs and time. A decline of vehicle ownership could cut parking needs in half within three decades and the 75 billion square feet of parking space to be eliminated is more than the U.S. apartment, office, mall, strip center, and industrial sectors combined. Read more about the implications of transportation change in the ULI and Green Street Advisors report, The Transportation Revolution: The Impact of Ride-hailing and Driverless Vehicles on Real Estate.

The 2017 Fall Meeting concluded with the release of the 39^th annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate® report. Emerging Trends in Real Estate®, undertaken jointly by PwC and ULI, is based on insights from hundreds of industry leaders and is the most highly regarded and widely read forecast report in the real estate industry. Panelists Christopher O. Ward, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive, Metro New York, for AECOM; Kate Bicknell, Senior Vice President of Commercial & Residential Development, at Forest City New York; and Mary Ludgin, Director of Global Investment Research at Heitman, joined Mitch Roschelle to discuss the report in the final presentation of the Fall Meeting. Don’t miss your opportunity to hear directly from Mitch at ULI Philadelphia’s Real Estate Forecast 2018 on November 30, 2017.

If you missed the Fall Meeting or you want to catch up, You can watch videos or review numerous presentations on ULI’s website. And for a list of notable reports discussed at the 2017 Fall Meeting please see below.

Outside of the convention center ULI Philadelphia members and staff mixed and mingled at the YLG, WLI, Healthy Corridors, and NE Corridor Receptions. The week offered numerous opportunities to connect, learn and socialize. If you didn’t make it this year be sure to attend the 2018 Spring Meeting in Detroit and Fall Meeting in Boston!