Much of the future infill development could take place along suburban transit corridors, the kind of six-lane roads that are bounded by free-standing retail and parking lots. These areas--dubbed gray fields--present ample opportunities for new development, particularly as the supply of prime locations fizzles out. “Gray fields are the next land resource,” said Peter Calthorpe, an urban planner who received the Urban Land Institute‘s J.C. Nichols prize for visionaries in urban development,
Calthorpe cited Wilshire Boulevard in suburban Los Angeles as an example of “ribbon urbanism” that works. The street has a string of high-rise offices that are very close to the single-family homes that were constructed later. He also discussed a Ralph’s grocery in San Diego where the parking is “hidden” from the street but has been hugely successful nonetheless.
Calthorpe is best known for his idea of regional design, a planning philosophy that maps out a region, rather than a single village, town or city, and attempts to develop diverse, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use and mixed-income developments. At the same time, regional design maintains the travel capacity that modern commuters are accustomed to.
There is a real need for architects who can design effective public spaces, Calthrope said. He added that mixed-use projects often have the flexibility necessary for good long-term urban design. Such projects often face the problem of market timing as mixing office, multifamily and retail can be difficult because one sector can be performing well while another is seeing weaker performance. But one advantage of mixed-use zoning is that properties can be converted. “Land uses can and should change over time,” he said.
CIM Group‘s focus has been on locations with improving demographics and the potential for change. Rather than assembling a large number of parcels in a single location, CIM often acquires a number of intermittently spaced development sites, said Mary Anderson, first v.p. “The key is to be able to effect a change,” she said. One requirement is that CIM be able to invest $100 million of equity in a given project over five years.
When evaluating a site, CIM seeks public policy that is inline with the company’s vision and tries to develop a rapport with civic leaders and agencies to expedite the entitlement process. The company wants to invest another $4 billion over the next several years and to expand its REIT component to buy its own developments once they are stabilized, said Anderson.
On the other hand, Christopher Frampton of East West Partners has developed a number of condominium projects in Denver’s Union Station area. Frampton said he focuses on “psycho-graphics” rather than demographics. “We want social people,” he said, explaining that the company often develops properties with wildly diverse uses. This includes a building full of young people, (locally known as Melrose Place after the insipid 1990s drama about an apartment complex of young, beautiful people) that is adjacent to a senior living center.
At Kimco Realty Corp., David Lukes, v.p., focuses on converting old malls. Many of the old-line malls his company now controls were built in the decades after the Second World War when an emphasis on the car and convenience meant they are surrounded by large parking lots. Decades later, as the communities around them have matured and the markets changed, the rationale for all that parking is gone. "[Kimco is often the owner of] the ugliest mall in town,’ he joked, adding that Kimco will redevelop these malls into mixed use properties.