State and local governments account for approximately 75 percent of all infrastructure spending in the United States, amid uncertainty about future investments by the federal government, according to Infrastructure 2013: Global Priorities, Global Insights, a joint report from ULI and Ernst & Young. Click here to read the report, which also explores infrastructure trends in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region.

Our 2012-2013 ULI mentorship program was a great one. This was highlighted at the culmination celebration at the Holding Company in the Embarcadero Center. The room was packed from wall to wall with mentees and mentors, all reminiscing about their last year of meetings, one-on-ones, and their latest projects.

Nevena Vidic, Young Leaders Group (YLG) Co-Chair, kicked off the event, recapping the program and thanking the mentors who participated. Then, one mentor and one mentee took turns talking about their experiences over the course of the program. Todd Kohli of AECOM is a self-proclaimed “OLG” (we think he believes that OLG stands for “Original Leaders Group”) talked about his goals with his group and how he interwove his background in landscape architecture. Colby Mikulich of Transwestern was a mentee of Rick Dishnica, an experience that connected him with great colleagues and a mentor that cared. Both mentor and mentee emphasized that the group got as much out of the program as they put in. In the program one can learn about their fellow mentees real estate stories, discuss the market and receive input about their careers and goals. The program provided an environment that fostered personal growth while leaving time for a beer or two with great people.

Authored by: Mark Leverette, Burr Pilger Mayer

A new ULI report underscores the influence that growing demographic groups in the U.S.–in particular Generation Y, African Americans, and Latinos–will have on reshaping urban growth patterns by spurring more development of compact, mixed-use communities with reliable, convenient transit service. Read more about the findings in the America in 2013 report.

Despite being far more tech-savvy than previous generations, Generation Y, the 80-million strong cohort of Americans between the ages of 18 and 35, has not forsaken shopping in stores for online purchasing – as long as retailers keep their offerings “fresh” and interesting, says a new ULI report. Click here to read the report.

On April 25^th, a distinguished panel of California affordable housing experts addressed a packed room on the state of affordable housing in the aftermath of the demise of redevelopment agencies. The Executive Director of California Housing Finance Agency, Claudia Cappio, shared her legislative and funding insights.  Executive Director of Eden Housing, Linda Mandolini, and Senior Vice President of BRIDGE Housing, Brad Wiblin, shared their views as large regional nonprofit developers, and Senior Vice President of AmCal Housing, Craig Adelman, provided the perspectives of a large for-profit developer of affordable housing throughout the State.

The panelists agreed that the industry had anticipated the demise of the redevelopment agencies for awhile, as the scarcity of subsidies had been apparent since 2009. Craig Adelman noted that he sees the business model shifting to cost-efficiency, and that projects more desirable from an urban planning perspective, such as urban infill, transit-oriented development, and special needs projects often cost more than conventional, 100% affordable deals that stretch low income tax credit dollars. Mr. Adelman saw opportunity in the strong Bay Area market, and called for affordable housing to be integrated into the commercial real estate world in a more consistent way. He cited student housing and mixed-income strategies as ideas to consider.

Brad Wiblin echoed the theme of cost-efficiency, and talked about the ways in which Bridge Housing has diversified its business model through geographic expansion, fee development for other non-profits and asset management for public agencies. He noted that 80/20, tax-exempt bond financing no longer works due to dislocations in the municipal finance bond market, and stated that the challenge going forward will be finding creative debt/equity partners in mixed-use market rate projects.

Linda Mandolini spoke on approaching local municipalities to fill in the gap left by the redevelopment agencies, through set-aside funds or through in-lieu fees. Claudia Cappio covered current legislative initiatives, what’s happening in the administration, SB375 and an affordable housing cost study that she has commissioned. Current legislative initiatives include SB391, a recording fee that would raise half a billion dollars towards the $1.5-2 billion funding loss from the redevelopment agencies. She also stated that the state is getting back into lending, as well as possibly partnering with the HUD in a risk-share program.

Authored by: Cindy Wu, Prudential Mortgage Capital Company

On a warm Thursday evening, forty people gathered at the Bay Meadows Commercial Marketing trailer, anxious to get a look into the newest developments of Bay Meadows Phase II. Previously the site of a major horse racetrack, Bay Meadows is no stranger to change. Phase II was officially adopted in 2005 by the San Mateo City Council, with Wilson Meany Sullivan as the project developer and Stockbridge Capital Group as the owner. Demolition of the racetrack and construction of the infrastructure began in 2008. The final design includes approximately 1,171 residential units, 750,000 square feet of office space and approximately 90,000 square feet of retail space.  TRI Point Homes purchased the first available residential parcel and designed 63 townhomes with KTGY Architecture + Planning. The second parcel was purchased by Shea Homes, which set forth plans for 93 units from 1,150 to 2,200 square feet. Conveniently situated to the Hillsdale Caltrain Line, Bay Meadows provides a transportation option to the future residents and working professionals which does not involve a single passenger vehicle. As transportation is one of the major attractions to owners and renters in today’s market, Bay Meadows meets the South Bay market’s growing demand for transit-oriented development.

The tour was led by representatives from TRI Pointe, Shea Homes, and Wilson Meany. Attendees were shown the model of the completed Phase II site while the plans for transportation, open community space and specialty retail were described. The group was led past a rolling park space, aptly named Bay Meadows Park, which sits next to the future site of the second Nueva School. The first Nueva School became burdened with such high demand that it approached Bay Meadows unsolicited to purchase land to build a high school. The new high school will be designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, and will sit on 2.76 acres of Bay Meadows. The tour continued to the Welcome Center, a double wide trailer complete with a large front patio, living green wall, and iPads to provide interactive marketing materials for interested future residents. A lively discussion of the development details completed the tour, and the evening ended with a reception on the Welcome Center patio in the shade of the impressive living wall.

ULI has made it easier to find and get the most out of its events, thanks to a new ULI Events mobile app for iPads, iPhones, and Android devices. The free app is designed to help ULI event attendees plan their schedules, communicate with each other instantly through Twitter—and even find nearby restaurants.

ULI gathers people from around the world, face-to-face and online, to share ideas and best practices. The institute offers large-scale events such as the Fall and Spring Meetings in the United States with thousands of attendees, and annual summits in Europe and Asia Pacific. But you can also find ULI members gathering locally nearly every day of the year, connecting to develop their skills, grow their professional network, and improve their neighborhoods and cities.

The ULI events app is now available for Android and Apple devices for use at the 2013 Spring Meeting in San Diego. To download the app, click on the icon below or search for “ULI Events” in your app store.

The April 16th hard hat tour of The Transbay Transit Center Project sold out in minutes, so when I saw an email from ULI announcing more openings, I snagged a spot. This $4 billion visionary transportation and housing project will create a modern hub connecting eight Bay Area counties and the State of California through 11 transit systems and completely transform downtown San Francisco. In short: it will change the way we live our lives. Really?

First, you must watch this video: http://transbaycenter.org/videos/the-transbay-transit-center-project-narrated-by-peter-coyote . Then, when you find yourself with some downtime, pour a glass of wine and explore the rest of the engaging Transbay Center website and try to grasp the magnitude, complexity and transformative nature of this project (http://transbaycenter.org/).

Before heading out on our tour, the Transbay Joint Power Authority hosted our group for a presentation similar to the video, but that went deeper into the planning, engineering, design and partnership components that together will accomplish the vision of “creating a ‘Grand Central Station of the West’ in the heart of a new transit-friendly neighborhood.” Among other feats, the Transbay Transit Center Project and new neighborhood will:

• Stimulate the economy by creating more than 125,000 jobs
• Add 6 million square feet of new downtown office space in a high density commercial core
• Generate more than $87 billion in Gross Regional Product and $52 billion in personal income through 2030
• Add 4,400 units of new housing, 1,200 of which will be permanently affordable
• Include the 1,000-foot-tall Transit Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco
• Feature 11+ acres of fully accessible new parks, including the 5.4 acre rooftop park
• Serve as the San Francisco terminus for California High Speed Rail Service which will reduce California CO2 emissions by 1.4 percent statewide
• Serve up to 45 million passengers per year
• Use cutting edge designs and technologies to achieve LEED certification
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 36,000 tons each year from the Caltrain commuter rail extension alone

We were now ready to put on hard hats and venture five stories below grade into a massive hole spanning four city blocks that will eventually be the project’s foundation. The excavation and bracing were impressive (none of the surrounding buildings fell in!). I can only hope that ULI is able to tour this project at least once a year until its projected completion in 2017, as there is so much more to come.

Lastly, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority is sponsoring the Transbay Archaeology Exhibit, which is currently on display in the lobby of 201 Mission Street, where TJPA’s offices are located, through the end of June 2013. On display are some of the amazing artifacts discovered within the footprint of the project site, all which illuminate the rich history of San Francisco’s Gold Rush era.

Authored by: Ashley Huck of JP Morgan

Cities across the Pacific Rim are facing increasing challenges to create more sustainable and livable cities. These difficulties, however, also present a wealth of opportunities for collaboration and innovation — not only for urban dwellers, but also for planners, policymakers, developers, city governments, and community groups. How can civic leaders create green, sustainable, healthy and livable cities across Asia?  Come to this event to hear from Thai Ker Liu, Chairman of the Singapore Center for Livability and the former Chief Architect of Singapore and a response panel of professionals directly engaged in urban sustainability initiatives across Asia.  This session is a follow-up to ULI’s recent forum in Hong Kong sponsored together with the Asia Society.   The Pacific Cities Sustainability Initiative (PCSI) was created to study, share and showcase the urban sustainability strategies of communities from across the Pacific Rim. Launched in 2009, the initiative is a joint program of the Asia Society and the Urban Land Institute with support from leading organizations engaged in solving challenges associated with rapid urbanization throughout the region. Following this event, Thai Ker Liu will keynote ULI’s second annual Pan-Asia Conference on June 4-6 in Shanghai

On April 28, 2013, a group of fifty ULIsf Young Leaders began bright and early at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.  On the agenda for the day was a stop at Sebastiani Winery for a lesson on wine blending, and then off to tour The Barlow, a new development project in Sebastopol.

After a quick bus ride, and much caffeine, we arrived at Sebastiani Winery in Sonoma.  We were greeted by our host, Stuart Ake of Tasting Lab, who would be guiding us through our wine blending adventure.  Stuart taught us the importance of aroma, texture and taste in creating a successful wine.  He first guided us through tasting unblended samples of wine to help us define different aromas and tastes, before we created our very own blends. Stuart’s humor kept us laughing and entertained as he shared his extensive wine knowledge.

After lunch in the Sonoma sun, we continued on to The Barlow in Sebastopol.  The project has overcome much diversity in small town Sebastopol, known for opposing development projects. The Barlow was originally proposed to the city as a condominium development; this was adamantly rejected by the community, which led the owner, Barney Aldridge, to redesign the project as a community marketplace with a specific focus on local, artisan retailers.  The “Go Local” campaign of the project focuses on allowing consumers to connect directly with locally- based producers.

The project is now approximately 80% leased with tenants such as Taylor Maid Farms, Guayaki Yerba Mate, and Community Market.  Keeping in the character of the original structure (an industrial apple processing plant) the project consists of seventeen metal warehouse buildings on 12.5 acres, each featuring glass roll-up doors.  The Barlow also includes many seating and grassy areas, encouraging a sense of community among Sebastopol residents, visitors, consumers and producers.

ULIsf Young Leaders expresse many thanks to Sebastiani Winery, Stuart Ake and The Barlow for the opportunity and the education.

Authored by: Meg Russell, The Prado Group