REAL ESTATE
Lenders to Commercial Real Estate Owners: Pay Up Now
Refinancing property debt has become difficult since interest rates started to soar in 2022. Many lenders initially extended maturing loans they made when borrowing costs were far lower, hoping that either interest rates would fall or that cash flows would grow. It is a strategy known as “extend and pretend.” Now, many lenders have stopped pretending, and the default rate is surging. The delinquency rate for office loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities climbed to a record 12.34% in January, the highest level since Trepp began tracking in 2000.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/lenders-to-commercial-real-estate-owners-pay-up-now-a4509562?mod=djemRealEstate
Risky Loan From Housing-Bust Era Is Making a Comeback
They are opting for adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs. These loans initially offer cheaper borrowing rates compared with a fixed-rate mortgage. But ARMs reset, usually after three to 10 years, which can saddle borrowers with higher monthly payments if mortgage rates have risen over that time. That isn’t the only risk: Borrowers who want to refinance when rates drop might not qualify if they have had a job loss or another change in their financial situation. But buyers are betting that mortgage rates will fall in the coming years, enabling them to refinance before the fixed terms of their ARM loans expire.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/risky-loan-from-housing-bust-era-is-making-a-comeback-be8dc32d?mod=article_inline
Younger Firms and CEOs Allow More Work from Home
First, employees WFH more often at younger firms – almost twice as often at firms founded after 2015 than at firms founded before 1990. Second, employees working under younger CEOs have higher levels of WFH. The average WFH rate is 1.4 days per week when the CEO is under 30, compared to 1.1 days when the CEO is 60 or older. Third, the self-employed WFH more than twice as often as wage-and-salary employees.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w34795
Will AI Make the Workplace More Human?
What’s emerging from this year’s findings is a powerful reframing: AI isn’t just a technology shift — it’s a people shift. As AI reshapes the mechanics of work, the physical workplace matters more, not less. Companies that invest in their workplaces unlock the full potential of their people and the technology, creating places where employees come together to think, learn, and build the relationships that fuel organizational performance.
https://www.gensler.com/blog/will-ai-make-the-workplace-more-human
Broncos plan three phases of stadium development, team attorney says
Burnham Yard was a rail yard for nearly 150 years before being shuttered and purchased by the state in 2021. Aragon said the team is exploring how best to repurpose a “huge” former locomotive shop, with ideas including a venue, team store and museum. “There’s a lot about the rail yard and the rail yard history for Colorado and for Denver that we’re really leaning into,” he said. “And we expect to revitalize that locomotive shop, make it into something really special, and have that sort of be the center of our entertainment district.” A rail yard turntable also will be preserved. The first phase, which will involve infrastructure such as roads, is expected to be in place by the fall of 2031. The team’s lease at Empower Field at Mile High runs through the previous season. The Broncos are planning 5 million to 7 million square feet of mixed-use development around the stadium, which will feature a retractable roof and grass field. “That’s going to be office, retail, housing — you name it,” Aragon said, noting that the specific amount of each is uncertain.
https://businessden.com/2026/03/12/tim-aragon-talks-burnham-yard-denver-project/
Why are the Broncos looking for ‘blight’? It could lead to tax subsidies and eminent domain near their planned stadium
The study could mark another significant step in the area’s redevelopment. It could eventually lead to the establishment of an urban renewal plan. That could allow DURA to use several development powers in the area, including:
• Granting tax subsidies to developers to pay for construction.
• Using eminent domain to force current property owners to sell their land to make way for the stadium and adjoining development.
Those powers can be controversial, and can only be used if DURA can find concrete proof of blight in the affected area. Team officials have acknowledged they’re interested in tax-increment financing. DURA has said that forcibly purchasing land, however, would be a measure of last resort. In addition to the 150-acre stadium site, DURA is studying conditions in a larger swath of land, including areas as far south as First Avenue, industrial buildings bordering Interstate 25 and near the 10th and Osage RTD station.
https://denverite.com/2026/02/24/broncos-new-stadium-blight-burnham-yard/
East West beginning demolition of west end of Cherry Creek mall
East West was selected to redevelop the west end of the mall in late 2021 by the mall’s then-owner Taubman Realty and the Buell Foundation, which owns the land under it. The mall is now owned by Simon Property Group, which acquired Taubman. East West, whose past work includes developing Denver’s Riverfront Park neighborhood, was given a 99-year ground lease. Denver rezoned the property in 2024. Four of the seven planned buildings will be residential, with about 840 units total. The remaining three will have about 600,000 square feet of office space combined. Cherry Creek is among the hottest office markets in the country. The buildings, the tallest of which will be 13 stories, will also incorporate about 100,000 square feet of retail space among them. Parking will
https://businessden.com/2026/03/12/demolition-cherry-creek-west-shopping-center-project/
How Zoning Won
In Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., a suburb just east of Cleveland barred a real estate company from using their land for industrial use; the developers sued and brought it all the way to the nation’s highest court, which affirmed that municipalities could impose zoning to organize development, as a police power. The 1926 ruling — garnished by Justice George Sutherland’s comment that a factory shouldn’t be in a residential area any more than “a pig in the parlor” — gave constitutional blessing to the establishment of permissible uses on specific properties, seen in color-coded maps to this day. From then on, for the built environment was set: residential homes in one part of town, commercial and retail in another, and manufacturing and industrial uses in yet another.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-19/at-100-euclidean-zoning-is-overdue-for-reform
The Human Side of AI: What Power Users Are Telling Us About the Workplace
When we studied people who are further along the AI adoption curve for Gensler’s Global Workplace Survey 2026, a surprising picture emerged: These employees aren’t just using new tools; they’re working, learning, and even experiencing the workplace differently. These patterns offer a glimpse into the future — and they challenge assumptions about AI’s impact on the human side of work.
https://www.gensler.com/blog/what-ai-power-users-tell-us-about-the-workplace
Denver’s population growth engine slams into reverse
Denver’s biggest migration boom in recent history occurred between 2008 and 2015, when the city netted an average of 7,700 newcomers each year. The peak was 2015, when 11,900 net new people arrived. Afterward, migration slowed but remained solid, averaging 4,000 people annually from 2016 to 2020. In 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, the city saw its first decline in net migration since 2006, losing 9,531 residents. From 2022 to 2024, Denver had an average net migration of just 2,700 people.
https://businessden.com/2026/02/24/denvers-population-growth-engine-slams-into-reverse/
A quiet geothermal boom could reshape how cities heat and cool
Because it simply moves heat rather than generating it, the Riverie is expected to reduce annual carbon emissions from heating and cooling by 53 percent compared with traditional residential buildings. As states and cities roll out strict building emissions caps, gas bans and net-zero targets, technologies that can deliver this kind of reliable, low-carbon heat are becoming more of a necessity. So what will it take for more cities to go geothermal? Despite operating costs being lower over time, the high up-front cost of installing a geothermal system is the biggest barrier. For the Riverie, Spriggs says that “there was just under a 6 percent up-front premium on the total construction costs. Over 25 years, these costs are offset through lower annual operating expenses and protection from [emissions] fines.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-urban-geothermal-boom-reshaping-how-cities-heat-and-cool/
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Colorado Kicks Off Cash-Back Program for Renters
The program acts as a tenant equity vehicle, a relatively new affordable housing strategy that expands beyond development subsidies. It also allows renters who consistently pay rent on time to receive frequent repayments and participate in property equity, with the goal of strengthening their credit profiles and savings accounts.
https://www.multihousingnews.com/colorado-kicks-off-cash-back-program-for-renters/
Colorado Gears Up To Leverage Federal Affordable Housing Bump
Changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act expand LIHTC, the most used financing mechanism for affordable housing in the country, and add an estimated $1B in equity to the market. The bill also reduced the threshold for affordable properties financed with private activity bonds from 50% to 25% of land and building costs. Novogradac estimates the additional financing will help bring 30,600 more rental units to the state over the next 10 years. Those changes will be compounded in Colorado, where the state implemented the country’s first middle-income housing tax credit program, which supports projects serving between 80% and 120% of the area median income, or up to 140% of AMI in resort counties. The state has also dedicated funding through Proposition 123.
https://www.bisnow.com/denver/news/affordable-housing/colorado-hopes-expanded-affordable-housing-funding-helps-spur-development-133573
Denver Water snowpack and water supply update
Snowpack as of March 16, 2026, was at or near record lows: The Colorado River Basin within Denver Water’s collection system was at 71% of normal. The South Platte River Basin within Denver Water’s collection area was 54% of normal. In Denver Water’s decades of records for its watershed collection areas, as of March 16, Colorado River snowpack ranked the third-worst on record, and the South Platte River snowpack remains ranked at the worst. No matter what, Denver Water’s annual summer watering rules will always be in place during the irrigation season.
https://www.denverwater.org/tap/denver-water-snowpack-and-water-supply-update
Amazon is planning to cut 49,000 desks from its office footprint in perhaps the biggest shift in its real estate strategy since it courted offers from cities and states for a second headquarters in 2017.
Management told members of Amazon’s global real estate and facilities group on Feb. 3 that the company aims to cut its average office vacancy from around 31% to just under 23% this year, according to a transcript of the call obtained by the Puget Sound Business Journal. The space-saving goal could impact more than 14M SF of the tech giant’s office space if each desk is assigned to one worker, with the average workspace having 146 SF per worker in 2024, according to CBRE. The plan was shared in a meeting with the real estate team shortly before CEO Andy Jassy told investors on the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call that it was planning to spend $200B on artificial intelligence investments in 2026, and weeks before the e-commerce and cloud computing behemoth announced a $50B investment in OpenAI, according to the PSBJ.
https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/office/amazon-to-shave-millions-square-feet-off-office-footprint-133499
Denver Home Prices Highest of Major Non-Coastal Cities
According to data from Realtor.com, Denver has the highest jump in the country in homes listed for sale since 2019, at 81.9 percent, Realtor.com notes, with a 15.9 percent increase in active listings from February 2025 to February 2026. However, initial home prices are only seeing modest reductions despite the increased listings, with median home listing prices dropping just 1.3 percent year-over-year in February. In fact, Denver has the highest median home prices for a non-coastal city outside of California, at just under $565,000, data shows. (You can buy something that’s technically a house in Denver for $300,000 or less, but it won’t be pretty.)
https://www.westword.com/news/denver-home-prices-highest-major-non-coastal-cities-40853167/
New UCLA Report Looks into the High Cost to Build Parking
As of 2025 a new car costs, on average, about $50,000. A new UCLA study finds that a new parking space, on average, costs even more. Not counting the cost of the land, an aboveground parking space costs on average $52,000 to build. Underground parking is even more expensive at $73,000 per space.
https://la.streetsblog.org/2026/03/02/new-ucla-report-looks-into-the-high-cost-of-building-parking
Why America Can’t Build Homes for the Middle Class Anymore
Of course homes are being built — developers seem busy enough. But what’s actually happening is that we’ve become extraordinarily bad at building housing that the middle class can afford. The numbers don’t lie. Since the year 2000, productivity across the American private sector has risen by more than 50 percent. But in construction? It’s dropped by 8 percent. Incredibly, homebuilders today produce about the same number of houses per worker as they did nearly a century ago.
https://medium.com/the-polis/why-america-cant-build-homes-for-the-middle-class-anymore-8d376b1b0e27
National Gentrification Intensity Map: Mapping Gentrification Across U.S. Communities, 1970 to 2020
The national map reveals novel patterns including the importance of gentrification in smaller cities, suburban expansion of the gentrification frontier beyond urban cores, and expansion into a more demographically diverse geography that increasingly includes majority-minority neighborhoods. These patterns suggest that gentrification should be interpreted within the broader, evolving geography of affluent neighborhoods, at scales including intrametropolitan patterns and elite residential geographies beyond the largest cities.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00330124.2026.2625975
How Jonathan Rose Cos. plans affordable housing projects
The inherent challenge in doing affordable housing is that it costs more to develop than the financing sources available. So filling that gap between what it costs to build a building and what a building can financially support is always the core challenge from a financial perspective. That necessitates the public-private partnership at a state, local and federal level. And being a good partner to your partners and to your government stakeholders is, I think, unique in affordable housing. It’s not always quite so clear in market-rate housing. With market-rate housing, you’re working in a community with your local zoning laws and land laws and land-use patterns, but you don’t have quite the depth of partnership that you have [with affordable development].
https://www.multifamilydive.com/news/jonathan-rose-affordable-housing/812187/
REAL ESTATE AND MOBILITY
RTD Board Chair believes FasTracks will never be built — and alternatives should be considered
O’Keefe said RTD needs to take a step back and look at planning a transportation system that would be successful for the people in the Denver metro area. He said one solution could be a joint service where RTD partners with the State and BNSF Railway, one of the largest freight railway networks in North America, to create the Front Range Passenger Rail District. “We’re not building and owning all the tracks. We’re not operating and owning all the carriages. We have a partner in the Front Range Passenger Rail District, and it would be cheaper than if we built it on our own,” O’Keefe said. “I’m very hopeful that our discussions with the governor and the state’s discussions with BNSF for track rights will enable that promise to occur. But even that is still an open question.”
https://www.cpr.org/2026/02/11/rtd-fastracks-funding-comments/
State awards grants to push dense developments near transit centers
On Thursday, the governor’s office announced it had awarded $13.3 million in grants as part of a 2024 bill Gov. Polis championed at the Legislature to encourage and require some communities to allow dense development near transit. “Building more housing Coloradans can afford near transit centers is an important way to increase housing options, protect our environment, and save Coloradans time and money,” Polis said in a written statement. Colorado’s law sets a general expectation that cities should allow denser development near transit lines, with the goal being 40 units per acre, similar to the condo-lined streets of northwest Denver. Some Democrats, Republicans, and local communities strongly opposed the law and said Colorado shouldn’t mandate that type of development, and should instead let local communities decide how to best manage growth and development in their own cities. Six “home rule” cities in Colorado are currently suing the state, alleging it has unconstitutionally usurped their local authority over land use and zoning as it pushes communities to allow denser housing development.
https://www.cpr.org/2026/02/26/grants-dense-developments-near-transit-centers/
MOBILITY
U.S. Department of Transportation launches competition to reimagine transportation infrastructure
The “Beautifying Transportation Infrastructure Challenge” competition offers a total prize pool of $650,000 distributed across three tiers, with the first-place professional prize—for architects, engineers, and planning firms—amounting to $250,000. Per the competition’s website, the bridges, overpasses, and roadways designed for the challenge are speculative only and “not a funding opportunity for physical infrastructure project.”
https://www.archpaper.com/2026/03/us-department-transportation-competition-transportation-infrastructure/
Drivers on I-25 north of metro Denver will face speed cameras starting next week
Drivers will face activated cameras starting next week — eight of them set up in a work zone along I-25 between Mead and Berthoud. Civil fines of $75 for drivers caught on camera exceeding the speed limit won’t kick in until spring. “I-25 carries a high volume of traffic, and when you combine that with active construction, the margin for error gets very small,” Colorado Department of Transportation chief engineer Keith Stefanik said in an emailed statement. “Slowing down and not exceeding the speed limit is one of the simplest and most effective ways to keep everyone safe.” CDOT crews installed the eight cameras along a stretch of I-25 where workers are building new express lanes in each direction. Starting March 1, drivers caught speeding will receive one-time warning notices for a month before CDOT begins issuing the fines, likely around April 2, agency officials announced this week. Signs will be posted at least 300 feet ahead of the cameras to notify drivers.
https://www.denverpost.com/2026/02/25/i-25-speed-cameras-mead-berthoud/
Study: AVs will super-charge vehicle miles traveled
Researchers at the University of Texas-Arlington found in a new meta-analysis of 26 earlier studies that vehicle miles traveled would increase if US cities made a major shift away from human-driven automobiles, with the papers collectively predicting about a 6% bump in average VMT. Worse, they’d still increase more than 5% if people shifted away from personally owned cars towards shared autonomous taxis instead.
https://ggwash.org/view/102680/study-avs-will-super-charge-vmt
Uber, which exited self-driving in 2020, is now at the center of the robotaxi era
On the company’s most recent earnings call, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi emphasized Uber’s hybrid approach, combining human drivers and autonomous vehicles across multiple partners and markets, as part of what he called the company’s “multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.” The strategy allows Uber to tap into the growth of robotaxis without bearing the steep costs of developing its own technology.
https://sherwood.news/tech/uber-which-exited-self-driving-in-2020-is-now-at-the-center-of-the-robotaxi/
Fare-free public transportation: A systematic review of outcomes
Our searches identified 416 peer-reviewed articles. After reviewing the abstract and full text, 45 articles were included in this study. Studies were grouped into four (N = 4) categories based on the outcomes of the FFPT: transportation outcomes (n = 34), social outcomes (n = 18), economic outcomes (n = 12), and health outcomes (n = 11). Outcomes of FFPT included increased access and use of public transportation, increased physical activity and active lifestyles (especially for older adults), increased social connections, and improved equity of transportation access. Eliminating the cost of public transportation for users can increase the use of public transportation, increase physical activity, and improve social connectedness. These improvements seem to yield greater impacts for racial and ethnic minorities, older adults, and other vulnerable populations. Future studies should assess the long-term impacts of FFPT on chronic disease and other health outcomes.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198226000862
Opinion: The Hidden Costs of Free Transportation
Whereas transit is often derided as socialism, driving on government-built roads in government-licensed vehicles manufactured to government-dictated safety and fuel standards, powered by government-mandated ethanol, and parked on government-provided spaces somehow remains an emblem of American freedom. Decades of highway expansion, “free” parking, and auto-oriented land use have trained us to ignore the enormous subsidies embedded in car infrastructure, making alternatives seem politically infeasible. As a result, policy continues to prioritize automobiles at the expense of other modes.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2026/03/17/opinion-the-hidden-costs-of-free-transportation
FAA Selects 8 Markets For Air Taxi Pilot Program
The program will test Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Vehicles, or eVTOLs, which are essentially large drones with enough space to carry passengers or bulky goods. They can depart and land on existing helipads or purpose-built “vertiports,” which means they can operate in dense, built-up environments.
https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/commercial-real-estate/faa-evtol-pilot-archer-aviation-133579
New APTA report highlights economic benefits of public transit ahead of surface transportation reauthorization process
The report comes as a supplement to APTA’s Surface Transportation Authorization Recommendations, which it began pursuing last year. The recommendations urge Congress and the Trump Administration to build upon current investment made in public transit and passenger rail through the existing surface transportation authorization bill—the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA)—by providing $138 billion for public transit and $130 billion for passenger rail over the next five years. APTA calls for this continued investment based on the findings of the economic impact analysis, citing that for every $1 billion invested in public transportation, $5 billion is generated in long-term economic value and supports jobs nationwide. That job support works out to $3.1 billion in earned wages for every $1 billion invested in public transit, according to the report.
https://www.masstransitmag.com/management/news/55361621/new-apta-report-highlights-economic-benefits-of-public-transit-ahead-of-surface-transportation-reauthorization-process
Could Refurbished E-Bikes Be the Secret Weapon of the Livable Streets Movement?
A nationwide survey recently found a staggering 43 percent of U.S. adults already own an e-bike, and of those that don’t, 52 percent are either considering or actively planning to buy one. A staggering 58 of those would-be owners say cost is a barrier to pulling the trigger on a pedal-assist vehicle, outstripping systemic concerns like fear of traffic violence (41 percent). Buying a used e-bike, though, made buyers nervous too, particularly about whether their new rides would be reliable (34 percent) or in good condition (32 percent.)
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2026/03/03/could-refurbished-e-bikes-be-the-secret-weapon-of-the-livable-streets-movement?utm_source=streetsblog-usa.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=tuesday-8217-s-newsletter
The City Where Free Buses Changed Everything
Central to Dunkirk’s strategy was reinventing the image of public buses, which were typically seen as overloaded, unclean and not particularly safe. Authorities now clean buses every day, and if a seat is broken then it is replaced within a day. Each route, they decided, should have a scheduled arrival every 10 minutes. Smartphone applications also allow passengers to track where and how full their bus is.
https://www.planetizen.com/features/136973-city-where-free-buses-changed-everything
