REAL ESTATE
AI Data Centers, Desperate for Electricity, Are Building Their Own Power Plants
Most tech titans would be happy to trade their DIY sourcing for the ability to plug into the electric grid. But supply-chain snarls and permitting challenges are complicating everything, and the U.S. isn’t building transmission infrastructure or power plants fast enough to meet the sudden surge in demand for electricity. America should be adding about 80 gigawatts of new power generation capacity a year to keep pace with AI as well as cloud computing, crypto, industrial demand and electrification trends, according to consulting and technology firm ICF. It’s currently building less than 65 gigawatts. That gap alone is enough electricity to power two Manhattans during the hottest parts of summer.
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/ai-data-centers-desperate-for-electricity-are-building-their-own-power-plants-291f5c81
Data Center Site Selection and Development in the Age of AI
Beyond the immediate power capacity, a site’s ability to scale is an important long-term consideration as chip density continues to rise. Sites that allow for a phased power build-out, strategically aligned with the data center’s construction phases, offer significant advantages. Prototypical concept designs can also be helpful here, allowing developers to investigate both the power that is readily available and the utility provider’s detailed road map for delivering additional capacity to the site over time. This approach can mitigate substantial up-front capital on power infrastructure that isn’t immediately required, allowing for more agile financial planning.
https://www.naiop.org/research-and-publications/magazine/2025/winter-2025-2026/development-ownership/data-center-site-selection-and-development-in-the-age-of-ai/
Is Your Office Property a Candidate for a Data Center Conversion?
A building will be suitable for data center use if it has the capacity to deliver required power and cooling, along with the structure and resilience necessary to ensure adequate space and the protection of equipment. These characteristics can be assessed through a well-scoped property condition assessment (PCA) and feasibility study. Because electrical supply and cooling systems are critical for data centers, a mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) assessment is also fundamental. An MEP specialist can confirm electrical capacity for the proposed project, create an inventory of current equipment, assess the condition of each asset, and provide a capital budget for deferred maintenance as well as a replacement schedule for these assets. Sometimes power requirements will indicate the need for relocating or adding a substation to support the project.
https://www.naiop.org/research-and-publications/magazine/2025/winter-2025-2026/development-ownership/is-your-office-property-a-candidate-for-a-data-center-conversion/
Project Profile: Reimagining U.S. Data Centers to Better Serve the Planet in San Jose
The next generation of data centers is flipping the script, shifting from relentless energy consumers to net-positive contributors. Solar panels, wind turbines, and fuel cells enable facilities to generate clean energy, with excess flowing back to the local grid. Waste heat is repurposed to warm neighborhoods, greenhouses, and nearby buildings, while water and other resources are reused within circular systems. By integrating these strategies into building design, data centers can become community partners, showing that digital infrastructure can strengthen urban and suburban ecosystems rather than weaken them. At the same time, the rapid acceleration of global data production is transforming the industry. Meeting this demand requires careful site selection, advanced computational planning, and operational efficiency, highlighting that the next generation of data centers must innovate both environmentally and strategically to thrive in an increasingly digital world.
https://urbanland.uli.org/project-profile-reimagining-u-s-data-centers-to-better-serve-the-planet-in-san-jose
Securing the Reliability of Electric Grid Infrastructure
Transformers are devices that increase or decrease voltage during the transmission of electricity. Transformers are needed to increase voltage when electricity moves from generation to transmission lines, and again to decrease voltage before electricity arrives to consumers. As of 2025, 55% of U.S. transformers were more than 33 years old. Additionally, increased electricity demand will require the United States to have 260% more transformers by 2050. Transformers are just one element of the aging grid; 70% of all U.S. transmission lines are over 25 years old, more than halfway through their lifespans. If the electric grid continues to age without significant upgrades, the likelihood of failure will only increase as time goes on.
https://www.naiop.org/research-and-publications/magazine/2025/winter-2025-2026/advocacy/securing-the-reliability-of-electric-grid-infrastructure/
Eight Policy Trends in Water-Wise Development and Land Use
On October 22, 2025, ULI convened the Water Wise Development Coalition to discuss the latest updates on water and land use policy and their implications for both the real estate industry and the country as a whole. The meeting brought together land use experts, real estate professionals, and public sector decision makers. Guest speakers included Kelly Connolly Kern, director of public affairs at the Alliance for Water Efficiency, and Lindsay Rogers, policy manager for municipal conservation at Western Resource Advocates. The convening revealed a number of dynamic trends in water and land usage at the federal, state, and local policy levels—with profound implications across the board.
https://urbanland.uli.org/resilience-and-sustainability/eight-policy-trends-in-water-wise-development-and-land-use
Mortgage Rates Are Falling but Owners Still Won’t Sell
Nearly 30 million households, or 54% of primary mortgage-holders, have mortgage rates at or below 4%. They were able to buy homes or refinance their mortgages when rates fell to 3% or lower in 2020 and 2021. Now, many of those who want to move don’t feel it is worth it to buy a home and take on mortgage rates that have doubled. This “lock-in effect” has helped freeze the housing market for three straight years, suppressing the number of U.S. homes for sale and keeping inventory well below historic levels for most of that period. “We don’t expect to see this massive influx of home buyers, especially while mortgage rates are above 6%,” said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com. “People can’t afford to move.”
https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/mortgage-rates-homeowners-08a609eb?st=XxYeNR
Denver Downtown Development Authority releases office-to-residential funding guidelines
Last fall, voters in the district approved a $570 million bonding capacity for the expanded authority, of which DDA leaders have said between $420 million and $450 million will go toward project investments; the rest will be used for other expenses. To date, the DDA has allocated about $164 million of the available funds, it says. Around 28% of the total allocated dollars so far have been approved for office-to-residential conversion projects transforming three 16th Street buildings.In November, the authority’s board approved $14 million for the historic Petroleum Building, at 110 16th St. The project is expected to cost $45 million in total, resulting in 178 residential units once complete, according to previous Denver Business Journal reporting. The DDDA this summer awarded funds to two other projects: the Symes Building, at 820 16th St., and the University Building, at 910 16th St. The Symes Building will receive a $17 million loan toward an anticipated $53 million project, while the University Building is set to get a $14.7 million loan for a $73 million retrofit, according to previous DBJ reporting.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2025/12/03/denver-downtown-development-office-residential.html
Denver Downtown Development Authority completes first real estate purchase
According to public records, the Denver DDA officially bought the two parking lots off Glenarm Place and 15th Street owned by Brookfield Properties this week, using special warranty deeds that show a $22.5 million purchase price for the lots. The parking lots are behind the Denver Pavilions, an outdoor mall that the DDDA will also buy soon, with an expected purchase price of $45 million. Denver City Council approved both deals earlier this month, with $23 million earmarked for the parking lots to include expenses related to the purchase. The Denver DDA, which formed in 2008 to aid in the redevelopment of Denver Union Station, didn’t buy property during that effort. After being renewed by voters and given an expanded geographic area last fall, the authority decided that directly buying assets would be part of its strategy moving forward.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2025/12/19/denver-downtown-authority-brookfield-parking-lots.html
Office-to-Residential Conversions Are Booming and New York Is the Epicenter
Over the past two decades, developers in New York have converted nearly 30 million square feet of office space into residential living, with the pace of transformation picking up in recent years. Most office buildings were considered too wide and mechanically complex to repurpose into apartments with kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. But New York developers are solving those problems with new architectural hacks—cut-through notches, carved light wells, and strategic wall-offs of interior cores that create space for new residential floors. New York saw its first conversion boom after the recession of the early 1990s, mostly in lower Manhattan. Back then, office-building prices also plummeted and the city and state offered tax incentives. Between 1995 and 2006, developers used these incentives to convert around 100 office buildings.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/nyc-office-residential-conversions-housing-4723b702
How sewage can be used to heat and cool buildings
Thermal energy from the sewage now powers a system that heats and cools classrooms, an equestrian center and veterinary hospital at the National Western Center complex. It’s a recent example of how wastewater flushed down the drain can heat and cool buildings in a sustainable way. Climate experts say sewage is a largely untapped source of energy due to its stable temperature of approximately 70 F (21 C). Wastewater heat recovery systems have already been installed in California, Washington, Colorado, New York and Canada. Pipes that transport sewage are already built, making it a low-cost and widely available resource that reduces the need for polluting energy sources.
https://www.cpr.org/2025/12/20/how-sewage-can-be-used-to-heat-cool-buildings/
Home Value Declines Spread, But Losses Since Last Sale Are Rare
Loss of value over the past year has been most widespread in the West and South. Most major metros in these regions have seen half or more of their homes lose value. More homes have slid in Denver than in any other metro, 91%, followed by Austin (89%), Sacramento (88%), Phoenix and Dallas — both at 87%. All told, 49 of the 64 major metros in these regions (those in the top 100 nationally) have had most homes fall in value. In sharp contrast, only three of the 36 major metros in the Northeast and Midwest have had majority declines over the past year; Minneapolis — where 55% of home values fell —Des Moines (54%), and Scranton (52%). While the losses have largely missed the Northeast and Midwest so far, declines are spreading to more homes in all metros.
https://www.zillow.com/research/home-value-decline-35724/
Unlocking Opportunity Zones: Strategies to Maximize Your Next Deal
A particularly timely update was the federal future of the program. Sikora explained that new federal legislation has made Opportunity Zones permanent, creating both near-term deadlines and long-term opportunities. Current zones remain designated through Dec. 31, 2028, but investors must place capital gains into qualified opportunity funds by Dec. 31, 2026, to preserve eligibility. Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, newly designated zones will launch a new 10-year cycle with rolling benefits including a five-year deferral on capital gains taxes, at least a 10 percent basis step-up, and full exclusion on appreciation if investments are held for 10 years or more.
https://www.ccim.com/insights/commercial-connections/winter-2025/currently-commercial
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Colorado launches initiative to speed up affordable housing projects
Developers seeking to build income-restricted rental housing typically must apply to multiple agencies — including the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA), and Denver’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST) — each with its own deadlines, forms, budget templates, and requirements. Developers say the lack of coordination often adds months of delay, contributes to rising project costs, and can stall projects before they ever break ground. The new initiative aims to address that by aligning requirements across agencies and eventually consolidating them into a single, statewide application. The common application is slated to launch in 2026 — a change that 85 percent of recent housing credit applicants identified as the single greatest improvement the state could make to the current process.
https://www.cpr.org/2025/11/25/housing-hub-colorado-initiative/
https://housinghubcolorado.com/
Already tough, housing affordability has worsened in rural Colorado
Already known for a lack of affordability, rural areas in Colorado have experienced the biggest run-up in home prices and the smallest gains in household incomes compared to urban and suburban areas. Rural households in Colorado need to make 120.5% more income than they did before the pandemic to afford the median-priced rural home, according to Redfin. For urban areas like Denver, the increase was 84.1%, and for suburban counties 70%. “Rural home prices are going up, especially in vacation areas with amenities like ski resorts, lakes and high-end restaurants,” said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist.
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/12/01/rural-home-price-affordability-colorado/
What does Colorado’s largest home manufacturing plant shutting down mean for industry?
Clayton Homes filed a notice with the Colorado Department of Labor on Tuesday that it will shut down its Heibar Installation manufacturing plant at 475 W. 53rd Place in unincorporated Adams County. By the end of January, 74 workers will lose their jobs at the 200,000-square-foot facility near the intersection of Interstates 70 and 25. – The impact goes far beyond the 74 jobs being lost. The plant was a key supplier to Oakwood Homes, which is building some of the most affordable non-subsidized homes along the northern Front Range. It offered a model to emulate when Gov. Jared Polis made fostering innovation and introducing manufacturing efficiencies into the home construction process a top economic development priority.
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/12/05/prefab-home-plant-closing-denver/
No State Has an Adequate Supply of Affordable Rental Housing for the Lowest-Income Renters
The U.S. has a shortage of 7.1 million rental homes affordable and available to renters with extremely low incomes – that is, incomes at or below either the federal poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater. Only 35 affordable and available rental homes exist for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. Extremely low-income renters face a shortage in every state and major metropolitan area.
https://nlihc.org/gap
What the Twin Cities Tell Us About Fixing the Housing Crisis
In 2022, St. Paul enacted one of the strictest rent-control regimes in the country. The ordinance capped annual rent increases at 3% for most apartments, even empty ones. It didn’t adjust for inflation. Across the Mississippi River, Minneapolis steered clear of rent control. Instead, city officials strictly focused on creating new housing. A package of land-use revisions in 2020 made it easier to build apartments, in part by removing restrictions that limited housing to single-family homes. Now, the results are coming into focus. Permits to build apartments in St. Paul plummeted by 79% in early 2022 from the year before, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Real-estate investment activity nearly froze. Developers halted new projects as lenders pulled back. Property values declined as investment cooled. All this compounded the existing real-estate problems brought on by the pandemic. St. Paul officials are now walking back parts of the ordinance, voting in May to exempt new construction and properties built after 2004. Kaohly Her, the mayor-elect and herself a landlord, campaigned on re-evaluating the rent-control policy further. In Minneapolis, meanwhile, developers kept building. Housing permits surged nearly fourfold in early 2022 from the year before. Downtown hubs blossomed as new apartments hit the market and attracted young professionals.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/minnesota-rent-control-regulation-prices-34221bd4?mod=djemRealEstate_h
America’s Housing Crisis, in One Chart
The Center for American Progress’s plan proposes a slew of projects to take this industry America invented and make it one where America is a leader. It wants the federal government to seed a major research program to fund innovation in housing construction. It wants the government to leverage its purchasing power to become an initial buyer for modular housing — one idea here would be to have the Department of Defense upgrade its military base housing using modular construction. It wants to modernize building codes to make modular easier — removing, for instance, an outdated federal requirement to attach a permanent steel chassis to all modular construction — and update federal insurance and financing rules to make sure modular production qualifies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/opinion/housing-crisis-america.html
How Building Affordable Housing Became Hottest Game in L.A.
Apartment developers across the city are lining up to submit proposals for 100%-affordable apartment buildings. The rush is thanks to a policy that promises to streamline the approval process by cutting the previous wait time from about a year to 60 days. Since the city implemented the policy in December 2022, plans for about 42,300 units of affordable housing have been submitted to the city under what is known as Executive Directive 1, or ED1, according to the mayor’s office. While some developers say they are still encountering issues, about 31,700—or 75% of those units—have received approval so far. That is more than double the total affordable-housing units getting the green light during the three years before ED1, according to city planning data.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/los-angeles-california-affordable-housing-7203324b
REAL ESTATE AND MOBILITY
Denver’s 16th Street Revival: The city’s iconic landmark reawakens the art of public life and sets a new standard for green infrastructure
Ultimately, public investment must deliver for a city. Denver’s $172 million bet on 16th Street is already showing results. According to the Downtown Denver Partnership, activity on 16th Street has risen sharply since much of the corridor reopened. From January through late July 2025, average daily visits were up 13 percent compared to the same period in 2024—an increase of roughly 600 more visits each day, or 120,000 more visits year-to-date. Unique visits also climbed 10 percent, adding 70,000 new individual visitors. June 2025 brought an even bigger surge, with daily activity up 24 percent over the previous year, translating to 1,400 more visits each day and 41,000 more visits that month alone.
https://urbanland.uli.org/issues-trends/denvers-16th-street-revival-the-citys-iconic-landmark-reawakens-the-art-of-public-life-and-sets-a-new-standard-for-green-infrastructure
Eliminating Parking Mandates to Tackle the Housing Crisis
Although courts continue to uphold broad municipal discretion in zoning, scholars and housing advocates question whether rigid parking requirements impose disproportionate burdens on the right to build housing, especially as exclusionary zoning and housing underproduction face growing scrutiny. As of August, more than 3,700 cities in 22 countries had enacted reforms to eliminate or reduce parking requirements, with over 100 cities removing all parking minimums, according to the Parking Reform Network. The organization’s Mandates Map shows the breadth of this trend, including reforms supporting multifamily housing. Nationally, structured parking costs approximately $30,000 to $40,000 per space.
https://www.naiop.org/research-and-publications/magazine/2025/fall-2025/development-ownership/eliminating-parking-mandates-to-tackle-the-housing-crisis/
400,000-square-foot DIA concourse expansion moves forward
A project that aims to add about 400,000 square feet of [Concourse c-West] space and up to 11 new aircraft gates to Denver International Airport took a step forward on Wednesday as a city council committee moved forward a $70 million contract for the expansion. The seven-year contract with V-1 Consultants for the work on Concourse C-West was approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and will now go before the full Denver City Council for consideration. The project marks the last possible gate expansion at DIA’s existing concourses. The total anticipated cost of the expansion is $700 million, officials said during the meeting.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2025/12/18/concourse-c-west-denver-international-airport.html
Find Out Exactly How Much Downtown Highways Cost Your City
Some of the most interesting data points draw on a 2019 Philadelphia Federal Reserve study, which found that beyond a three-mile radius of the downtown’s center point, “a highway’s presence goes from disamenity to amenity, in that it devalues property up to a half-mile away within that three-mile radius, and it adds value outside of that three-mile radius,” Kennedy explains. Put another way: by tearing highways out of their innermost downtown cores or converting them to boulevards, cities can unlock billions of dollars of redevelopment potential, increase badly-needed property tax revenues, and reduce individual households’ commute costs, often to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars per household per year, at least when the costs of maintaining shared infrastructure are added to the costs of owning and maintaining a personal vehicle.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2025/12/15/find-out-exactly-how-much-downtown-highways-cost-your-city
MOBILITY
RTD bus and train riders can now pay by tapping their credit cards
RTD chief executive and general manager Debra Johnson inspected the system at an electronic “fare validator” panel west of Denver’s Union Station. Riders can pay for their trips using credit cards or mobile wallets scanned into panels adjacent to drivers on 952 RTD buses and at 235 train and bus stations across the district’s 2,342-square-mile metro Denver service area, which spans eight counties. First-time and occasional riders, perhaps visitors in Denver for Broncos football games, will find RTD with this “Tap-N-Ride” payment system more convenient, Johnson said. “You can use whatever is in your wallet,” she said. “The flexibility and the ease of payment will entice those who might have trepidation about using our system.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/11/26/rtd-tap-fare-payment-credit-card-ridership-revenue-buses-trains/
Europe’s longest urban cable car is unveiled over dazzling capital city
The cable car system — which features 105 gondolas with 10 seats each — is expected to carry around 11,000 passengers per day above Parisian streets. While the new cable car is the longest in Europe, it still lags behind the longest in the world, which connects the Bolivian cities of La Paz and El Alto over 20 miles. The USP of the Paris cable car is its journey time: a total of 18 minutes, including stops along the way, compared with around 40 minutes by bus or car.
https://metro.co.uk/2025/12/16/europes-longest-urban-cable-car-unveiled-dazzling-capital-city-25527507/
Parkonomics: Construction and Commissioning
Discussions around the future of parking often center on radical transformations, such as converting garages to alternative uses. This long-term perspective is crucial and merits detailed examination, but the substantial costs associated with such an “insurance policy” often outweigh any benefits. Although transportation is evolving rapidly, the fundamental need to store vehicles—whether self-driving, electric, or even garbage-powered, as imagined in Back to the Future—will persist. Therefore, the more immediate opportunity lies in reimagining the use of our current and near-future parking assets while allowing for the ongoing evolution of transportation.
https://urbanland.uli.org/design-planning/parkonomics-construction-and-commissioning
NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by 22% in Manhattan, study finds
Since New York City introduced congestion pricing in January 2025, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, and toll revenue projected to hit $500 million by the end of the year. Now, Cornell researchers have tallied the environmental benefits. In the first six months of the program, air pollution—in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller—dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ), which encompasses all local streets and avenues at or below 60th Street in Manhattan. The team also reported declines across the city’s five boroughs and surrounding suburbs.
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-nyc-congestion-pricing-air-pollution.html
It’s Tesla vs. Google in the fight for self-driving supremacy. Trillions are at stake.
If and when autonomous cars become ubiquitous, Waymo and Tesla likely won’t be able to charge a premium anymore. Just like the human-driving ride-hailing that really took off in the mid-2010s, Tesla and Waymo could chase lower prices and wind up in a race to the bottom.
Of course, winning a robotaxi war likely isn’t the endgame for Tesla and Waymo. The services could be a proof of concept or advertising. Google already has numerous partnerships with vehicle manufacturers and other autonomous tech companies; it will likely want to sell the Waymo driving tech to others and let them do the dirty work of operating a robotaxi service. The same goes for Tesla, which would probably prefer to keep the liability for its cars on outside fleet operators or individual owners. But before autonomous taxi services can truly reach critical mass, the companies still have to convincingly prove one thing to the world: that autonomous driving truly works.
https://sherwood.news/tech/its-tesla-vs-google-in-the-fight-for-self-driving-supremacy-trillions-are-at/
Co-founder of Seattle Transit Riders Union Wins Mayoral Bid
Katie Wilson, co-founder and general secretary of Seattle’s Transit Riders Union, edged out incumbent Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell in one of the nation’s closest races on Nov. 4 that took nine days before a winner could be declared. On Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump signed a controversial funding bill to reopen the federal government after a record 43-day shutdown. Also that day in the ‘other’ Washington, the 780,000 residents of the state’s largest city learned who their new mayor would be. “As of Wednesday evening, when the Seattle Times called the race, Wilson had garnered [pdf] 138,489 votes, a 1,976 vote lead over her opponent, Bruce Harrell, the first-term incumbent,” reported Jared Brey for Governing on Nov. 14. Wilson is a well-known activist in Seattle and the head of the Transit Riders Union, an advocacy group that has campaigned for a range of progressive causes related to transportation, housing and the cost of living. Wilson is a former columnist for the Seattle news website, Crosscut, now Cascade PBS.
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2025/11/136384-co-founder-seattle-transit-riders-union-wins-mayoral-bid
