Urbanexus Update - Issue #83
H. Pike Oliver compiles this weekly update of real estate and community development news. Please note that some links may lead to items that are behind a paywall.
Retail
Betting against malls Investors have lost hundreds of millions of dollars wagering that struggling mall owners won’t be able to pay their debts. Those losses haven’t deterred Carl Icahn from making the same bet.
Office
WeWork trying to fill huge spaces
WeWork signed eight D.C. leases totaling over 550K sq. ft. in the months leading up to its failed IPO attempt, and now it must find companies to fill the spaces.
Master-planned communities
Consumer interest exceeds supply RCLCO recently completed a major consumer research study and found strong interest in purchasing in master-planned communities among prospective homebuyers.
Housing
Where the most entry-level housing is built in the USA — blog.firstam.com First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi identifies the cities where the most new entry-level homes are being built and what those cities have in common.
Who’s going to buy 21 million boomer homes?
Baby boomers are likely to move out of one quarter of America’s homes over the next several decades. Many of these properties are in places where younger people may not want to live.
Chōwa and home building in the USA
The Japanese business philosophy of chōwa--“the spirit of partnership and life balance”--is poised to have a transformative effect on American home building.
New Arizona development sans cars
A $140 million residential project in Tempe (Phoenix area) is banning privately owned cars in favor of scooters, bikes and ride-sharing, testing demand for a new type of walkable neighborhood.
Metropolitan dynamics
Effects of artificial intelligence
Bigger, higher-tech metro areas and communities heavily involved in manufacturing are likely to experience the most AI-related disruption.
Vast new metropolises in China — www.city-journal.org
The Chinese have pushed furthest the notion of the city as product. One of the most important aspects of China’s recent economic development is the profusion of new cities being built from scratch. By some estimates, China has built more than 600 new cities since the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949.
Community planning and development
Involving the public in data collection — urbanland.uli.org
There are good examples of open data collection in cities today. One example is the bicycle counters (cykelbarometer) in Copenhagen, which use a sensor line in the bike lanes to count each bike that passes by. A display shows the number of bicycles for the day and for the year. And because Copenhagen is dedicated to being kind to cyclists, the cykelbarometer includes an air pump for bicycle tires. This simple yet effective way to engages the public in data collection.