REAL ESTATE
Economist Snapshot: Where Are the Cracks Showing in the U.S. Economy?
Despite strong consumer spending and ongoing AI-related CapEx investing, U.S. GDP growth slowed to 1.5 percent in the second quarter. Growth fell short of economists’ expectations of a 2 percent growth rate. The slowdown comes amid ongoing concerns about the ripple effects of the Iran war on energy prices, rising inflation, and slowing job growth. Urban Land: Where do you see cracks emerging in the economy that could negatively affect commercial/residential real estate? And what one economic indicator are you keeping a close eye on that could signal more trouble ahead for the economy?
https://urbanland.uli.org/capital-markets-and-finance/economist-snapshot-where-the-cracks-are-showing-in-the-u-s-economy?utm_source=realmagnet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HQ%20Urban%20Land%2008%2E24%2E26
Receiver takes control of Denver’s tallest tower, sale likely
The skyscraper was worth an estimated $298.1 million at the start of 2023. A decade earlier, Republic Plaza was financed at a $535.4 million valuation, evidencing the dramatic shift in valuation for downtown Denver’s office properties. Republic Plaza was 95% occupied in 2023, but that has fallen to 70% occupancy, according to loan documents. Occupancy is projected to fall to 56% by the year’s end, according to CMBS loan information. The property will soon lose a high-profile tenant in Bank of America, which plans to relocate to the newly delivered Block 162 building in the fall, the DBJ previously reported. Loan information shows Republic Plaza has generated millions less in income in each of the last three years. The building brought in $36.05 million in revenue in 2025, registering $21.56 million in expenses and generating a net operating income of $14.5 million. That’s down from 2024, when net income from operations was $18.23 million and is almost half the figure from 2023, when the building’s operating income was $27.5 million, CMBS reports show.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/09/04/republic-plaza-downtown-denver-receivership.html?ana=emailafriend
The Number Of Large-Scale Data Centers In U.S. Projected To Triple By 2030
The U.S. has around 90 operational data center campuses with at least 100 megawatts of capacity, according to data published this week by capital markets analytics publication The Kobeissi Letter. But if all data center projects under construction or in earlier stages of development move forward, that figure could climb to 280 by the end of the decade — more than tripling the number of hyperscale facilities operating today. That scale of build-out comes with an astounding price tag, according to The Kobeissi Letter. Over the same period, tech companies are expected to spend close to $7T on data centers, making the AI arms race one of the largest capital spending cycles in history. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta have already signed more than $1.5T in data center leases since the advent of the AI infrastructure boom nearly three years ago.
https://www.bisnow.com/news/national/data-center-development/large-scale-us-data-centers-projected-triple-by-2030
AI data center support has collapsed. Here’s what happens next.
Polling from news outlet Heatmap over the last year found that 61% of Americans “strongly oppose” a data center being built near where they live, up from just 24% in August 2025. When combined with people who are “somewhat opposed” to data centers, the total in opposition rises to 75%, up from 42%. A Gallup Survey conducted earlier this year similarly found that 71% of Americans “strongly oppose” or “somewhat oppose” data centers built in their areas, compared to just 27% who are “strongly” in favor or “somewhat” in favor. The dramatic shift in sentiment likely won’t stop the data center boom, but it will alter the playing field and change how developers approach these big projects, experts say. “The trillion-dollar buildout won’t stop; too much capital is already committed. What changes is where and how fast,” said Jonathan Schaeffer, co-founder of AI software firm Synsira.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/09/08/ai-data-center-support-collapses.html
What an AI slowdown could mean for the nation’s $1 trillion data center buildout
“My sense is that there will be little to no impact,” said Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group Inc. and chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors. “After all, the data center construction boom is not really motivated by Anthropic, OpenAI or xAI. While those firms are important, it is the hyperscalers like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft that are driving the enormous spending on data centers, and these firms will continue to compete for global dominion in AI and need massive computing power to win.”
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/09/14/ai-slowdown-frontier-anthropic-openai-amodei.html
Modernizing Colorado Permitting to Lower Housing and Construction Costs
The most important modernization challenge is not necessarily the technical building code itself, but the administrative fragmentation surrounding routine, standardized projects, such as those for HVAC, water heaters, or roof work. Colorado is well positioned to modernize permitting for routine, low-risk residential projects by implementing a risk-based scoring system for faster review and approval. Permitting plays an important consumer protection role, so modernization should preserve inspections, documentation, enforcement, and penalties while eliminating avoidable administrative delay.
https://fas.org/publication/modernizing-permitting-to-lower-housing-and-construction-costs/
Why Are Dead Malls a Thing?
It must have seemed smart at the time, signing away “free” covenants, reciprocal easement agreements, exclusive-use clauses, operating covenants, and consent rights controlling every single aspect of how the mall is governed to four or five different companies, in exchange for a bustling mall. In the good times, none of this really mattered. Yes, it must have been inconvenient to get the sign off from the various companies on every small programmatic change. Maybe Bloomingdale’s would balk at developing part of the parking lot, or Boscov’s would veto adjusting the mall’s hours. No bother: As long as the anchor tenants were happy, such spaces could easily be filled with a tenant that meets their standards. Then came the bad times. When the anchors started going under, this thicket of rights and obligations made it nearly impossible for malls to quickly adapt.8 And in most cases, it was the anchors that survived the longest that blocked change.
https://mnolangray.substack.com/p/why-are-dead-malls-a-thing
Retail as a Public Good?
We assume that because retail is for-profit, it shouldn’t need the kind of support we give the arts or parks. But the fact is that retail’s failure in many downtowns isn’t just about a market failure that economists imagine in theory — it’s about the mess that is reality in practice. There’s the problematic condition of under-maintained buildings, the dysfunction and delay of our permitting systems, and absentee landlords who want 10-year leases and are willing to wait nearly as long for the tenant who can fulfill them. Solving these problems will require something more than just waiting for supply and demand to realign.
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/the-new-urban-order-retail-public-good-meantime/
Malls Were Left for Dead. Now They Are the Top Performer in Commercial Real Estate.
After years of lagging behind the commercial-real estate recovery, malls are outperforming every other property type as more investors conclude that enclosed shopping centers have more staying power than previously understood. Mall values are up 13% over the past year, according to real-estate analytics firm Green Street. That tops all 10 commercial property sectors and is more than double the increase in overall commercial real-estate prices.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/malls-were-left-for-dead-now-they-are-the-top-performer-in-commercial-real-estate-0bf6100f
Find your property on the Discover Denver findings map
This tool allows you to search for a Denver building by address or explore buildings in a specific neighborhood. The map provides a photo of the property taken during the survey, information about the estimated year the building was built, its original and current use, the number of stories, its form or architectural style, its roof form, and its primary cladding material. Several addresses in each survey area will include detailed information about the building’s history. You will also find a link to the neighborhood history from the survey report listed under each property. It’s a great way to learn more about your city and your neighborhood through its buildings.
https://geospatialdenver.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/attachmentviewer/index.html?appid=2295f292faff47f28eb32543f6fd2352
SDP extension: three months of impact
Since City Council approved the site development plan (SDP) extension ordinance on May 4, 2026, CPD has started to see its impact on projects across the city. The numbers tell a clear story: The extension has ensured that multiple projects that might have stalled now have the opportunity to move forward. The zoning code update gave all SDPs approved before 2026 an additional three years to obtain building permits, extending the period of validity for SDPs approved on or before Dec. 31, 2025 to 66 months from their approval date. As a result of this extension, nearly 6,300 residential units were kept in motion that otherwise risked delay or loss altogether.
https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Community-Planning-and-Development/Plan-Review-Permits-and-Inspections/Zoning-Permits/Site-Development-Plan-Review
The Property-Tax Revolution
Since 2020, nationwide home values have climbed roughly 50 percent, leading property-tax bills to increase 19 percent and contributing to a 71 percent increase in the cost of homeowner’s insurance. At the same time, the price of gas, utilities, food, and everything else has risen, stamping out entrepreneurship, dimming the fertility rate, and making even six-figure earners feel financially strained. Homeowners have had enough, and grassroots groups have mobilized to turn private kvetching into public policy. Over the past four years, nearly two dozen states have slashed property taxes: Alabama by capping annual assessment increases, Colorado by lowering marginal rates, Indiana by creating credits, Nebraska by setting a limit on local collections, New York by sending checks to homeowners, Wyoming by carving out loopholes for seniors. My back-of-the-envelope accounting suggests that the measures have reduced property-tax revenue in those states by 7 percent, saving homeowners as much as $45 billion a year.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/florida-taxes-amendment/688594/
Many cities buried urban streams. Here’s how to bring them back
As many cities developed, streams that once flowed on the surface were buried underground to make way for growing infrastructure. However, as heavier rainfall, extreme weather and aging infrastructure place growing pressure on cities, these buried streams could become part of the solution. Restoring streams to the surface — a practice known as stream daylighting — can help manage stormwater, restore habitats and create greener, more walkable public spaces. But recognizing these benefits is easier than delivering a successful project.
https://theconversation.com/many-cities-buried-urban-streams-heres-how-to-bring-them-back-289767
America’s water infrastructure is reaching its breaking point
The problem was highlighted this summer when a water main installed in 1916 ruptured beneath West Hollywood during a heat wave, releasing 17 million gallons of water, while cyberattacks targeted municipal water systems in at least a dozen states. Cities including Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, have battled lead contamination, while Corpus Christi, Texas, faces a water emergency tied to extreme drought and poor long-term planning. In western North Carolina, Hurricane Helene damaged or destroyed 75 water systems, with some communities experiencing service disruptions lasting more than 50 days. About two-thirds of U.S. water pipes are more than 30 years old, and the American Water Works Association estimates that modernizing systems could require $2.1 trillion to $2.4 trillion through 2050. Roughly 97% of water infrastructure funding comes from local ratepayers, while average U.S. water rates rose 64% between 2012 and 2023.
https://www.businessreport.com/article/americas-water-infrastructure-is-reaching-its-breaking-point
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
The Modern Sears Home: Resurrecting the Affordable American Starter Home for a New Generation
It will take the kind of public ambition that once sent 30,000-piece home kits rattling on rail cars across the country to families who otherwise thought homeownership a distant aspiration. It will take a government willing to act not at the margins of the market, but at its center – financing cheaply, building at scale, and remaining committed to affordability long after the deed is signed. The Modern Sears Home program is that ambition made actionable. By combining large-scale factory production with permanent affordability protections and direct federal financing, it offers a concrete path to 500,000 new homes in eight years – each priced from $170,000 to $215,000, within reach of young families the market has left behind. The technology and policy levers to realize this vision already exist.
https://groundworkcollaborative.org/work/the-modern-sears-home/
What Happens When a Community Is Designed to Bring Generations Together?
“For researchers, multigenerational living is defined less by co-residence than by proximity and shared resources,” writes A. Krista Sykes for the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. “Relatives living in an accessory dwelling unit or a nearby home may therefore be included. Intergenerational arrangements, however, take a wider range of forms, including students renting bedrooms in older adults’ homes, older adults living on college campuses, and residents occupying individual units within cohousing developments.”
https://shelterforce.org/2026/08/26/what-happens-when-a-community-is-designed-to-bring-generations-together/
The poorest in the US, including metro Denver, can’t find housing even as low-income units sit empty
True Ground Housing Partners, an affordable housing developer in the Washington, D.C., area, gives an example: A unit for those earning 60% of the area’s median income — nearly $70,000 a year — brings in $1,715 per month in rent. But after $1,575 in mortgage and operating expenses, only $140 is left. “The math does not lie,” said president and CEO Carmen Romero, noting that an extremely low-income person would pay only half that rent. “Our expenses don’t make it really possible to create a 30% AMI unit, unless there was this extraordinary amount of subsidy that just doesn’t exist.” Meanwhile, affordable housing rents for 60% AMI units are approaching those of market-rate apartments in U.S. cities like Austin, Denver and Portland, Oregon. As a result, some people are opting to pay a bit more for market-rate apartments with less income-verification and faster approval — leaving growing numbers of affordable units vacant.
https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/the-poorest-in-the-us-including-metro-denver-cant-find-housing-even-as-low-income-units-sit-empty/
REAL ESTATE AND MOBILITY
Amazon, Alphabet and Others Are Quietly Rolling Out Drone Delivery Across America
Operating for years overseas, Zipline has logged 20 million miles of flights across 275,000 commercial deliveries, mostly of blood, vaccines and medical products in Rwanda and Ghana. Late last year, it built a launch platform attached to the back of a Walmart in Pea Ridge, Ark., just outside the retail giant’s headquarters city of Bentonville. The Pea Ridge facility can serve any home in a 50-mile radius, says Keller Rinaudo, Zipline’s CEO. Zipline operates 11-foot wide, fixed-wing drones that launch from a steel rail by an electric motor that accelerates the 44-pound aircraft to 60 miles an hour in one second. Flying autonomously, the drones drop orders at their assigned addresses in cardboard boxes suspended beneath paper parachutes. Upon return to the launch station, they maneuver so that a centimeter-wide hook on their tails catches a line suspended at the end of a long, carbon-fiber arm—akin to the tailhook systems that halt Navy jets landing on aircraft carriers.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/amazon-alphabet-and-others-are-quietly-rolling-out-drone-delivery-across-america-11648872022
Who gets the curb? A systematic review of responsive curb management research
Emerging data sources, including sensors, cameras, mobile applications, and integrated payment systems, make responsive curb management (RCM) increasingly feasible by supporting the definition, implementation, and enforcement of curb regulations that adapt to real-time conditions. This paper provides a systematic review of RCM research and classifies the literature into five groups: qualitative studies, empirical behavioural and causal inference studies, predictive analytics and machine learning, optimisation and control, and network-level and multimodal system models that capture interactions across curb operations, traffic flows, and transportation modes.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441647.2026.2723950#abstract
Highways Could Soon Carry More Than Cars Under New ‘Great Corridors’ Plan
Called America’s Great Corridors of Commerce (AGCC), the voluntary program would give state transportation departments and railroads a way to lease portions of their rights-of-way for infrastructure such as transmission lines, fiber optic cables and water pipelines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The goal is to use land that already exists instead of acquiring new property for every project, potentially cutting costs and speeding up development. Under the AGCC model, states and railroads could partner with private companies known as “Corridor Managers.” Those companies would help oversee the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the added infrastructure, according to USDOT.
https://www.roadsbridges.com/transportation-management/news/55401559/highways-could-soon-carry-more-than-cars-under-new-great-corridors-plan
MOBILITY
Voters will decide on Front Range train in November
Under the district’s delivery plan, in 2032, trains would make four round trips between Denver and Fort Collins each day, stopping in Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont and Loveland. There would be two round trips between Denver and Pueblo, with stops in Littleton, Sterling Ranch and Colorado Springs. That would then increase to six trips to Fort Collins and four trips to Pueblo by 2037. Regardless of whether the sales tax passes, an initial service with three trips on the northern route is slated to begin by 2029. That is expected to cost $332 million, with funding secured from the state and the Regional Transportation District. The expansion of the Colorado Connector service to Colorado Springs and Pueblo would then cost an additional $2.7 billion. Operating the full route would cost between $85 million and $116 million annually, the district forecasts.
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2026/08/28/board-puts-sales-tax-on-ballot-for-train.html?utm_source=ma&utm_medium=dr&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=general
Colorado nears a fully built-out statewide EV fast-charging network
Today, 83% of Colorado’s state highway network is within 30 miles of a DC fast-charging station, more than double the 40% coverage recorded in August 2020. “Widespread EV adoption in Colorado would not be possible without convenient access to charging all across the state, from the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope and everything in between,” said Colorado Energy Office Executive Director Will Toor.
https://governorsoffice.colorado.gov/governor/news/colorado-nears-fully-built-out-statewide-ev-fast-charging-network
Robotaxis are Skipping the Pump and the Meter; the Public is Picking up the Tab
The issue is not whether robotaxis should exist; it is that the pricing model we use to fund streets, curbs, and pavements was built around gas-guzzling vehicles that must also be parked somewhere when not in use. Current-day robotaxis – and possibly future personally-owned AVs – do neither. Without a thoughtful legislative response at the state, local, and federal levels, we are heading towards a future where the vehicles that use our busiest streets the most will also be the ones contributing the least towards maintaining them.
https://enotrans.org/article/robotaxis-are-skipping-the-pump-and-the-meter-the-public-is-picking-up-the-tab/
America’s streetcar revival has seen mixed results. Is Omaha on the right track?
Omaha claims the under-construction streetcar has already spurred $1.3 billion in development, with more to come. That growth justifies the streetcar, even if its immediate ridership doesn’t, Jensen said. But streetcars don’t deserve all of the credit for spurring development, said Mendez, the Kansas professor. Cities usually pair streetcar projects with TIF and tax breaks, making it difficult to tell whether developers are responding to the new transit system or the other incentives, he said. If a city’s primary goal is to encourage development, financial incentives might be cheaper and easier than a streetcar, Mendez said.
https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/americas-streetcar-revival-has-seen-mixed-results-is-omaha-on-the-right-track/
Philadelphia Figured Out to Stop Double Parking — Will Other Cities Follow Suit?
Rather than deploying police to catch violators in the act, the camera-based program reduces illegal parking by making it easier to follow the law. Curb users complete a one-time enrollment that links their license plate to an online account, where they are automatically charged 10 cents per minute parked. In other words, the city isn’t asking drivers to follow the law — drivers follow it by design.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2026/08/24/philadelphia-figured-out-to-stop-double-parking-will-other-cities-follow-suit
These U.S. Cities Are Rewarding Careful Drivers With Fewer Red Lights
The solution, which the city credits for a dramatic drop in crashes and injuries along one busy stretch of road, is a relatively novel version of a longstanding traffic safety concept commonly known as “rest in red,” in which traffic signals default to red until a vehicle approaches. But Albuquerque and Portland, Oregon, took it a step further by adding speed sensors that grant a much earlier green light to drivers traveling at or below the posted limit.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/these-u.s.-cities-are-rewarding-careful-drivers-with-fewer-red-lights
American Drivers Think Speeding Is Okay Because Everyone Else Is Doing It
Ironically, 87 percent of surveyed drivers support an increase of law enforcement in areas that have had a history of speed-related crashes and 88 percent said they’d welcome increased enforcement in areas that had the potential for speed-related crashes. This also included speed enforcement cameras. But don’t take away their right to speed. You can catch them speeding but drivers were opposed to devices or technology that would actively limit their ability to speed, and installations of things like speed humps that would actively make drivers slow down, lest you feel like destroying your suspension or sending your car into the air like these cars in Fresno.
https://www.jalopnik.com/2241704/american-drivers-speeding/
Police memo: How Denver officers are to handle driverless Waymos
“If there’s no driver, there currently isn’t a mechanism within state law for issuing a citation,” a Denver Police Department spokesperson said in an email. A Denver police training bulletin sent out in early July, and obtained by BusinessDen, details how officers are supposed to handle the vehicles when no one is behind the wheel. “Waymo vehicles are designed to safely pull over when they detect a police or emergency vehicle behind them with activated lights. Once stopped, the vehicle will remain stationary for the duration of the contact,” the memo reads. “After stopping, the vehicle will unlock its doors and lower its windows so a Waymo representative can communicate directly with the officer.”
https://businessden.com/police-memo-how-denver-officers-are-to-handle-driverless-waymos/
Road space, living space, and induced demand
By the early 2000s, the Katy Freeway—a stretch of I-10 in Houston—had a problem: it had become badly congested. So, starting around 2004, Texas spent $2.8 billion to add capacity to the highway, ultimately ending up with an astonishing 26 lanes in some places. At first, the added lanes did improve traffic flow. But then something curious happened: within a few years of completing the project, traffic-tracking data revealed that travel times along the expanded route had increased by up to 51% during peak commute hours. The expensive expansion had worsened the very congestion problem it intended to fix.
https://stephnakhleh.substack.com/p/road-space-living-space-and-induced
A Colorado company thinks a $30B train could bring ski traffic from Denver to Avon in 97 minutes. Others call it a ‘pipedream’
The proposed route would cross through largely undeveloped terrain south of Interstate 70 and require two major tunnels, a nearly 5-mile tunnel under the Continental Divide and another 6.5-mile tunnel near Fremont Pass, according to an executive summary of the project. The plans call for the trains to use battery electric locomotive technology, such as that developed by the Pennsylvania-based Wabtec Corporation. The proposed rail line would have a station at Denver International Airport, one that would tie into existing rail lines at Mineral Station in Littleton, another stop in the rural town of Bailey along U.S. Route 285 and stations in Frisco and Avon to drop ski traffic near major resorts. Branch said the company has devised a route through the mountains that fits railroad standards, including never exceeding a 4% grade. Based on estimates from comparable European railroad projects, the project summary estimates that it would cost between $28 and 33 billion to construct the Denver West Express over a 12-14 year period.
https://www.summitdaily.com/news/colorado-electric-train-ski-traffic-denver-avon/
