Urbanexus Update - Issue #55
Please scroll down for the weekly compilation of analysis, reporting and opinion about real estate and community development. Some links may lead to material that is behind a paywall.
The role of real estate
Real estate is the unfinished business of society
Unlike many other timely industries, the real estate industry is timeless. In his latest Strategic Advantage newsletter, Chris Lee claims that, The vision, efforts, risks taken, and sacrifices made by real estate entrepreneurs have shaped and revitalized every city, town and community in the U.S
The economy
Longer-term implications of government debt
William Gale of the Brookings Institution offers facts that inspire the analysis and proposals in his new book Fiscal Therapy, which looks at the trouble looming – in the form of rising government debt, and in the way we tax and spend – beneath a U.S. economy in great shape otherwise.
Residential
Rare San Diego site goes to Lennar
Lennar Corp. has acquired a massive and rare 41.5-acre development site in San Diego with plans to build a 601-home community. Like other markets in Southern California, San Diego has a housing shortage. This new home community, which is set to deliver next year, aims to address the need for more housing supply with a broad mix of home styles, including 99 single-family homes, 105 triplex homes, 120 townhomes and 277 apartments.
Retail
An early retail mall transforms as Seattle changes
A 21st-century phenomenon is occurring at Northgate Mall, where JCPenney and other shopping center mainstays are closing to make way for the demolition of the property, which owner Simon Property Group has said is a "complete re-imaging" with the addition of office, residential and hotel buildings. Retail will remain — though only in about 40 percent of the just over 1 million square feet that exists today.
Mega mixed-use evolution
Hudson Yards compared to Battery Park City in NYC New York’s newest neighborhood drew inspiration from Battery Park City, but is filled with 21st-century twists.
Metropolitan trends
In the USA, college graduates are concentrated in suburbs — www.newgeography.com
The nation’s high-density central business districts of the major metropolitan areas have the largest shares of adults over the age of 25 with bachelor’s degrees or higher, which is consistent with popular perception. At the same time, because such a small percentage of people live in the central business districts, by far the most bachelors degree and higher adults live in the suburbs.
Stagnating cities in the USA For stagnating post-industrial cities, a near-term revival is unlikely. The best strategy they can pursue is to lay a foundation for renewal, in preparation for future market changes.
Transportation
Congestion pricing and the cost of roads and parking
Charging for driving and parking on public rights-of-way could change not just traffic, but also how we think about the infrastructure cars require.
Environment
Recycling Baltimore’s blighted houses
As part of the city’s effort to fight blight, it is paying a nonprofit that deconstructs buildings in some neighborhoods and then salvages and ships old bricks and lumber across the U.S. and to the Caribbean. Instead of ending up in landfills or being pulverized, the materials become floors in a Southampton, N.Y., pool house, walls in high-end Washington, D.C., condos and the ceiling of an outdoor-recreation store in Philadelphia.
Around the world
Half of sub-Saharan Africans still living in slums
Housing conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have improved dramatically since 2000, but nearly half the urban population still lives in slums. The good news is that Research in Nature magazine found the proportion of homes that met United Nations criteria for building standards, living space per person, water and sanitation had more than doubled between 2000 and 2015 to 23 percent.
Cutting commutes in an African megacity
Could Dar es Salaam’s experiment with Africa’s first ‘gold standard’ bus rapid transit system offer an alternative to a future dependent on private cars?
Brick by Brick, Baltimore’s Blighted Houses Get a New Life — The Wall Street Journal — apple.news