ULI real estate forum focuses on Detroit redevelopment

The buzz in Ann Arbor last week was about Detroit and its potential to join a countrywide trend of urban renewal.

For two days, Realtors, developers, academics, civic leaders and activists from across southeast Michigan put their heads together to discuss Detroit as an emerging real estate market during the Urban Land Institute’s annual real estate forum, held at the University of Michigan.

That kind of frank discussion about the city’s potential wouldn’t have happened a decade ago, says Chris Leinberger, director of U-M’s graduate real estate development program. “The market it didn’t want it to happen 10 years ago.”

But now, he says, the trend in real estate development is more urban centered, as more people want to have a walkable, urban lifestyle. He told the group that 40 percent of Detroit households want to live in “walkable urbanity,” meaning communities where retail and services are easily reached by foot.

Downtowns are coming back, all over the country, he added, and “many of them are the most expensive places to live in their region.”

And Detroit could join them if public leadership embraces redevelopment and private investors bring in their dollars, Leinberger says. “I follow the golden rule: ‘He with the gold rules.’ Leadership in Detroit must make that happen.”

Participants at the forum learned about things like successful development projects in Mexicantown, Detroit’s efforts to recast its image and the importance of preserving historic architecture. They also took a bus tour in Detroit of several upcoming, revitalized city neighborhoods.

The Urban Land Institute is an educational and research nonprofit dedicated to promoting and understanding smart, well-planned and designed land-use practices. For more on ULI, go to www.uli.org. For more on U-M’s new real estate development program, go to http://www.tcaup.umich.edu/realestate/.

Source: Clare Pfeiffer Ramsey, Model D