Developer fascination with urban centers grows

More than 500 developers and consultants attended a two-day Urban Land Institute “Placemaking” conference at Reston Town Center in Virginia in mid-September. The strong turnout was indicative of the industry interest in building mixed-use projects centered on main streets or designed as downtown districts. Mixed-use, new urban projects are “hot” in the development industry, yet they require far more skill to pull off successfully than the typical suburban shopping center, office park, or apartment complex. Developers are thirsting for guidance, as was palpable in Reston, and they will find a lot of that in the newly published second edition of ULI’s Mixed-Use Development Handbook. It’s been 16 years since ULI put out the first edition, and boy, have things progressed in that time. Projects influenced by New Urbanism make up about two-thirds to three-quarters of the new volume. Taken together, the Placemaking conference and the Handbook offer a good perspective on how the development industry views New Urbanism. While new urbanists routinely mix uses at smaller scales, the ULI is focused more on the Big Project, such as Mizner Park, City Place, Santana Row, or Easton Town Center. Most of the projects being talked about are urban centers and cores

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