"For the right deal, there is money to be had…what does the right deal look like?" How do you position your deal to be the right one? Hear insights and learn strategies for navigating real estate capital markets today. In this session, hear from the full range of lenders: large banks, regional banks, private equity, debt funds, and others. Who is lending and who isn't? For what types of deals? What size? What terms? Refinance? Development? What changes in the debt landscape can be expected up ahead?

It has been almost 12 years since New York City launched the Applied Sciences NYC initiative, a once-in-a-generation investment in higher education with the aim of ensuring NYC remains one of the world's premier economic hubs for the future. The initiative involved the creation of three new campuses across the city—the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute on Roosevelt Island, the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress in Downtown Brooklyn, and the Columbia University Data Science Institute in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The city offered over 12 acres of city-owned land at Roosevelt Island, a seed investment of $100 million of city capital, and the full support of the administration. The cost to the city was significant, but the impact was expected to be enormous ($33 billion overall economic impact, 1,000 spin-off companies, and 48,000+ jobs over three decades). How successful has this initiative been thus far and will it be worth the investment? What were the lessons learned? How can other cities leverage their higher education institutions to create a strong commercialization pipeline, from academia to industry, to create more jobs?

The New York metropolitan area has 20 million residents and within the next century could see six feet of sea-level rise due to climate change. The city itself has 500 miles of coastline and faces significant challenges for long-term coastal protections, including for vulnerable and marginalized populations. While new housing opportunities are needed to create equitable, resilient development in sustainable mixed-use neighborhoods proximate to mass transit, the region also has an existing housing affordability problem that will be further stressed by climate migration and population growth over time. This panel focuses on analysis, policy response, and insight into the various challenges and opportunities for evolving the metropolitan area for future housing demand. Expertise in climate modeling, public policy, urban design, and long-term planning will be needed to create more equitable and resilient neighborhoods. Panelists will discuss how climate change will dramatically impact urban design and land use and will identify key policy considerations coupled with tactical solutions for metropolitan areas to promote future-proof planning, climate justice, and resilient design.

This session will present the findings from ULI Terwilliger Center's 2024 Home Attainability Index. The Index is a data-rich resource for understanding the extent to which a housing market is providing a range of choices attainable to the regional workforce. The data can help identify gaps in home attainability and provide better context to understand residential markets; provide context by connecting housing costs to the wages earned by people with specific occupations in a region; and enable national and regional comparisons to inform housing production, policy, and financing decisions. The session will begin with Adam Ducker, CEO of RCLCO, presenting the national findings before drilling down to the local findings for each panelist. Ducker will then have panelists answer how they are addressing the particular housing needs in their market. Through this session, attendees will learn how the data can help decision-making for local economies: e.g., what type of housing is needed, and at what price point; who exactly is priced out; and how it is affecting the ability for employers to attract and retain workers.

Commercial real estate used to be a fairly staid sector, but exogenous shocks to the system such as global pandemics, macroeconomic shifts, and climate change have created a need for faster, more nimble decision-making to increase returns and mitigate risks. Leveraging the vast quantities of data available through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence can create tools to explain the current state and predict likeliest future states, but acquiring data and the ability to use it effectively costs money and time. After a brief introduction to the topic, the panelists will talk about how their companies have deployed data science and artificial intelligence to create a competitive advantage.

Join the ULI WLI Americas for its signature program where Kelly Nagel, past WLI Americas Chair and Head of Residential at Edens, will moderate a fireside chat with Nancy Lashine, Founder and Managing Partner of Park Madison Partners, a boutique real asset private equity placement firm. They will discuss Nancy's path to success and the challenges she has navigated along the way as a woman entrepreneur. The conversation will also include relevant topics that advance efforts and leverage allyship to close the gender gap in commercial real estate, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship, capital markets and real estate investment.

Middle market to luxury senior living developments have continued sprouting up across the United States, driven by an aging population of baby boomers who are socially and culturally active. Today's seniors are retiring later, traveling more, and embarking on nontraditional live/work/play paths, which include urban lifestyles and proximity to their children. The objective of the panel is to explore the current state of senior living real estate development across the United States. The panel will discuss and debate the most valuable ideas and strategies actively evolving the industry today, with a focus on multigenerational placemaking, designing for well-being, and international influences.

Over the lifetime of a building, embodied carbon from materials, transportation of materials, and building construction can account for half of a building's carbon emissions. Global building floor area is expected to double by 2060, which amounts to an incredible amount of upfront carbon emissions to address in the built environment. The process, and responsibility, to do so spans multiple stakeholders: materials supply chain, structural engineers, architects, construction, and developers. No longer can excuses be made or fingers be pointed for not achieving reductions; there is an urgent need to address embodied carbon. Plus, as global momentum builds for climate action, federal, state, and local governments are introducing building-sector requirements covering both operational and embodied carbon. This session will provide perspectives from a general contractor, a structural engineer, and a developer who have successfully reduced embodied carbon in new developments. Panelists will walk the audience through embodied carbon reductions from predesign through development, building occupancy, and deconstruction, all of which encompass a vital part of the industry's journey to net zero.

New York City has a unique and varied history developing mixed-income housing. As cities around the country grapple with a growing housing affordability crisis, state and local governments are increasingly experimenting with different programs and formats of producing mixed-income housing to address this challenge. This panel will provide a deep dive into the topic, exploring where mixed-income housing works and where it sits in the continuum of attainable housing solutions. Mixed-income housing has the potential to provide economic, social, and political benefits, including serving a wider range of incomes, improving social mobility, increasing production in supply constrained markets, and mitigating financial risk. Panelists will draw from the experiences of NYC projects such as Essex Crossing, Navy Green, and Hunter's Point South to shed light on the benefits and challenges, including NIMBYism (not in my backyard), levels of affordability, and resource allocation; demystify available financing vehicles; and identify the tools government can deploy to promote mixed-income housing.

Rather than replicating tried, but tired, concepts, hear from industry leaders who embrace innovative strategies, technologies, and concepts to deliver unique, meaningful entertainment experiences across generations from boomers to gen Z. Moreover, these fresh approaches deliver enhanced return on investment and are translatable to a variety of development types, including mixed-use projects, community placemaking, and sports and entertainment districts. Join us as these entertainment development innovators show how development can still be fun!

The past few years have brought into sharp focus the scale and breadth of the interconnecting challenges we face. Economic pressures, climate change, a generational shift in work habits, and more are challenging real estate leaders in unprecedented ways. It can be hard to know where to focus your energy and resources first. What's clear is that unique challenges require innovative solutions. Join Gensler's co-CEO Jordan Goldstein, managing principal Joe Brancato, and a panel of real estate leaders from the work, lifestyle, and cities sectors as they help you reveal the signal within all the noise. Diving into Gensler's renowned Design Forecast publication, this session will be rich with the latest trends in design for the built environment together with actionable advice and new ideas that you and your teams need to be paying attention to now and in the year ahead.

"For the right deal, there is money to be had…what does the right deal look like?" How do you position your deal to be the right one? Hear insights and learn strategies for navigating real estate capital markets today from capital providers. In this session, hear from the largest to the smallest equity investors today. Who are the active investors? What are they looking for? How do they find the right deals? How does the range deal sizes find them? What has worked for them recently? What terms? Refinance? Development? What are they looking for in the future?

Conventional hospital buildings will soon be outmoded. While providing a wide range of services under one roof might have seemed efficient at one time, today we understand that very few patients require so much at once. Instead, a distributed system of care—with a bevy of access points and a focus on the patient experience—more efficiently addresses needs, both physical and financial. Today's health care providers understand this and are looking for ways to cost-effectively distribute the most care to the most people, while also enhancing the experience of workers, patients, and the communities that surround them. Simultaneously, developers and owners are looking for solutions for underused real estate of nearly every type, in both downtown and suburban locations, that can be scaled nationally. This panel will bring together top players from the entire health care real estate ecosystem to examine case studies of how a decentralized model can improve health outcomes while realizing the potential of vacant commercial real estate.

Building owners, investors and tenants grapple with the costs of reducing carbon footprints while cities set aggressive goals towards achieving net zero. Meanwhile, the capital markets must determine how to finance these "green" initiatives and quantify the value and risk associated with transitioning to net zero. Join us as we explore the real costs of going to net zero, who bears the burden and the financial drivers behind this push.

Current challenges to America's office sector need not spell the death of the American city. In fact, urban office buildings and their surrounding downtowns have a distinct advantage over suburban or nonurban developments. Data suggest that while American office workers prefer the flexibility of work-from-home or hybrid work arrangements, they are still flocking to cities to recreate. This change began even before COVID, as miles of waterfront from Pittsburgh to New York were rejuvenated and activated with retail, restaurant, park, and residential uses. These well-programmed, lifestyle-focused urban developments have proven to be attractive alternatives to an increasingly online world and magnets for investment and urban innovation. The office sector's headwinds are an opportunity to rethink America's downtowns by transforming single-use, commuter-focused blocks of office buildings into places where people want to spend their leisure time—replacing central business districts with central social districts. By thinking of our downtowns as homes for social activity, we can expand the realm of what's possible and fill city centers with activity, life, and commerce.

Customer value and driving loyalty are ubiquitous concepts when it comes to consumer industries. However, in real estate, only the hospitality sector has cracked the code on what loyalty means in the context of built environments and the experiences they contain. Both single-family and multifamily residential continue to grow as asset classes and scale players are emerging. With this growth comes the opportunity to build brand and create customer stickiness—driving both higher renewal rates and better pricing for the branded promise behind living experiences. We will discuss how customer expectations are evolving from these players, what loyalty means in the context of a living experience, and how players are leaning into digital and artificial intelligence to help power a next generation of personalized services and community with the aim of building brand. We will dive into how to take a design-led approach to building brand equity beyond naming and finishes, and using that brand strength to create unique, data-driven loyalty moments around the big "decision moments" that matter (e.g., touring, lease signing, renewal decisions). In short, this presentation, followed by a panel discussion, will aim to unpack how end-to-end experiences in the residential sector can be reimagined and digitized to drive a new frontier of loyalty and consumer brand.

As the home to more than 1,500 museums, galleries, theaters, dance companies, zoos, botanical gardens, and more, New York City is clearly at the epicenter of arts and culture. Beyond these cultural organizations, arts and culture can easily be viewed in the public realm through the city's storefronts, sidewalks, and street plazas. Attracting talent and visitors alike, the vibrant cultural landscape in New York has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar sector fueling the city''s economic engine. Public investment in the arts in New York is unmatched when compared to other city and state arts councils, with only the federal government spending more. The underlying belief is that such investments in arts and culture positively impact the economy, social well-being, and community engagement. Despite its rich cultural landscape, New York City still faces challenges when addressing historic barriers such as class, race, and income inequality. Join industry professionals, civic leaders, and other major stakeholders as they discuss the challenges and opportunities when creating a cultural eco-system that is more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable for all New Yorkers.

The seminal ULI 2022 publication "10 Principles for Embedding Racial Equity in Real Estate Development" highlights the need for real estate practitioners to recognize the power of language and lifts up an imperative for a shared language around racial equity in real estate. A new ULI report, "Racial Equity Terms for Real Estate Leaders," aims to elevate widely accepted definitions and help specific terms come alive for real estate professionals by demonstrating applications in real estate and development practice. In this session, learn more about the new resource and hear how real estate leaders are building their understanding of and advancing action on core concepts including antiracism, equitable development, inclusion, and more.

Join us for an eye-opening session that will transport you to the future of the built environment. We'll step into a future state world to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) might enable better human experience and connection. During this engaging session, we'll imagine the possibilities, together. Will you be effortlessly transported from your doorstep to the office, whisked away on a cutting-edge "people mover"? Will technology become your ally, monitoring your well-being, stress levels, and productivity, providing personalized recommendations to enhance your mental health? Picture a future where your office recognizes your need for a revitalizing cup of coffee and has it waiting for you. It's time to talk about the potential of AI to enhance the human experience in the office. While everyone is discussing how AI can improve services today, few are exploring how it will revolutionize our office environments of tomorrow. Don't miss out on this invaluable session tailored for professionals, executives, and thought leaders who want to stay one step ahead in the AI-driven workplace of the future. Join us and be part of the conversation that will shape the way we work and experience the office environment in the years to come.

Building regional transit infrastructure and associated transit-oriented communities takes many years, yet its success depends on clear objectives established early in the process. Learning to anticipate the challenges of building an efficient and economically viable transit system with ample opportunities for the private sector creates value for governments, their agencies, and local stakeholders who benefit from improvements in their communities. This session will demonstrate how successful preplanning for development and community building requires the integration of design, policy, and economics to create innovative solutions that yield tangible results and respond to regional growth considerations. This session will show how to broker effective urban planning and design solutions—from the technical requirements of station design to priming a physical and economic landscape. Considering these and many other factors well in advance clarifies the role of private- and public-sector investment while mitigating risk and maximizing the benefits of large-scale regional transportation infrastructure projects.

"For the right deal, there is money to be had…what does the right deal look like?" How do you position your deal to be the right one? Hear insights and learn strategies for navigating real estate capital markets today from capital users. In this session, hear about their large and small deals, what debt and equity scenarios did they explore? What were there going-in expectations and criteria? What adjustments were made along the way in their capital structure? What worked and what didn't? Refinance? Development? Acquisition?

In response to the pandemic and the global push for racial justice, the Freedom West team and future development is prioritizing equity in the built environment. This panel explores an "Equity by Design" framework to design and development, uncovering a community's needs and aspirations—including underserved voices—and tying design solutions to what is heard. Freedom West 2.0 will exemplify an Equity by Design approach through the revitalization of Freedom West Homes in San Francisco, the largest and oldest co-op in western North America. Spanning four city blocks, the project encompasses 382 existing homes and 2,000 new ones. Its primary objective is to provide a sustainable future for the predominantly African American and East Asian population in the area. The master plan and conceptual design revolves around restoring the city grid and urban neighborhood character, as opposed to the current forced suburban layout, driven by the city's density reduction agenda, particularly affecting ethnic communities. MacFarlane Partners, Legacy First Partners, and Avanath Capital Management have fully committed to community equity. This approach not only considers the co-op's spatial requirements but also its values.

The panel will focus on strategies for developing vibrant, inclusive, healthy central business districts (CBDs) in the post pandemic era, particularly in the context of the work-from-home reality. Panelists will explore approaches, such as office to residential conversions and creative use of ground floor space, that have been implemented in New York City and other global cities, as well as challenges and lessons learned along the way. The panel will delve into the current status of NYC's CBD neighborhoods, including Midtown, Midtown South, and Downtown, and highlight the importance of maintaining a healthy tax base. It will explore how to reinforce the city core amidst the trend of decentralization and debate the ingredients (uses, spaces, etc.) vital to creating a healthy, thriving CBD ecosystem. The panel will highlight successful examples from other cities around the world to provide broader context, with panelists sharing insights on strategies to increase office occupancy and discuss tools and techniques for creating more activity through new uses and conversions. Additionally, it will explore approaches for transforming the public realm to be more attractive and inviting.

In recent decades, no building material has inspired awe, passion, and innovation like mass timber. Nature's building solution is transforming the construction industry because it sequesters carbon, greatly improves speed and precision, significantly reduces the size of the framing crew, and, most important, creates a superior product that occupants love. The United States has been behind Europe and Canada in the production and use of mass timber and many municipal codes haven't even contemplated tall timber as a solution. But in recent years that has changed, as companies such as Google, Adidas, Atlassian, and Walmart have embraced mass timber and cities have updated codes to allow for taller mass timber structures to be built. This session serves as a "state of the union" for mass timber: how far it has come, its massive future potential, and the biggest challenges (and solutions) for its progress.

Fifteen-minute communities hold the promise of accelerating decarbonization, increasing housing affordability, reducing climate and health risks, and fostering social equity. This approach to city building lays a foundation for developing compact, mixed-use, and walkable communities that can increase real estate value, create co-benefits for joint use and co-location, and generate new resources to help invest in local communities. The ULI Curtis Infrastructure Initiative created Building 15-Minute Communities: A Leadership Guide to share actionable leadership strategies across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to decarbonize metro regions with a network of 15-minute transit-oriented communities; diversify urban central business districts into affordable, live-in downtowns; humanize edge cities into heat-proof, resilient, retirement, and child-friendly communities; densify suburban corridors into walkable, mixed-use innovation districts; transform suburban malls into transit and trail-oriented mixed-use communities; and activate exurbs as working landscapes of agrihoods and nature-based solutions. Learn about this practical tool for aligning leadership actions to implementation.

This session will cover the opportunities and challenges in developing mixed- or middle-income, infill multifamily development—often referred to as "missing middle" housing. Using real development case studies presented by three developers, the panel will cover both rental multifamily and homeownership development models. The case studies will show how we can deliver housing more affordably than typical market-rate development and more efficiently than typical affordable housing development, using creative financing tools that blend private impact equity with strategic public financing sources.

This panel will explore the challenges and opportunities cities face with a focus on the U.S./North American context from a variety of different perspectives—economic, social, and governance. Many cities are incredibly desirable and expensive places to live. However, they are struggling with perceptions about safety, quality of life, underlying and persistent inequities, the economic health of city centers, and balancing budgets. What are the major shared challenges cities are confronting and how are they grappling with them? What new opportunities does this moment present? New York City has returned to pre-Covid unemployment levels (as of September 2023) but is grappling with a deepening affordable housing crisis, strained municipal budgets, and long-term climate risks, among other challenges. Is there an emerging playbook for addressing this moment? How is NYC handling these challenges? And, more optimistically, where are the opportunities?