The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to release new rules regarding stormwater management that will set new standards for development projects. How will these new regulations impact infill development? And what do developers need to know?
Real estate developers, investors and professionals are invited to attend the 2013 LOCUS Leadership Summit, taking place on June 4 and 5, 2013 in Washington, DC.
This year’s Summit, titled “Bringing the Market to the Hill: Realigning the Federal Role in Real Estate,” will convene real estate professionals from across the country to connect with members of Congress and discuss how federal policies and investments can support more walkable, sustainable developments and lead to a growing economy.
Participants will hear from industry leaders and chief policymakers on a variety of topics including programs such as the New Markets Tax Credit and TIFIA, best practices for developing smart growth, and the role of policy reform in sustainable development.
Thank you to everyone who joined LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors yesterday for an online presentation about using the recently modified federal loan program, Transportation Innovative Financing Infrastructure Act (TIFIA) to finance TOD projects. Presenters: Duane Callender, Director of the TIFIA Office at the USDOT Kevin DeGood, Deputy Director of Policy, Transportation for … Continued
For more than 50 years, the dominant development model in the United States has been the familiar ‘driveable suburban’ approach. Today however, a structural shift is underway in the real estate market as demand increases for walkable urban development – and the DC region is leading the way.
Now, LOCUS, in collaboration with the George Washington University School of Business and ULI Washington, is proud to announce a five-day executive education course this summer aimed at providing real estate professionals the tools they need to take advantage of this of this market transformation. The course, which will be held from June 10th to 14th in Washington DC, features an impressive line up of developers, elected officials, place managers and others at the forefront of transforming Washington D.C. into the nation’s leading market for walkable urban development.
Chris Leinberger at CNU DC’s Live.Work.Walk event.
Urban dwellers and apartment hunters everywhere are familiar with the term “walk up,” frequently used to describe an apartment building lacking an elevator. But at a recent event hosted by the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) in Washington, D.C., attendees learned about a different type of WalkUP – the “walkable urban place.”
Chris Leinberger, President of Smart Growth America’s LOCUS, was a keynote presenter at Live.Work.Walk. D.C.’s Future Growth, presented by the Washington, D.C. chapter of CNU on March 11. In his presentation, which opened the full-day educational event, Leinberger gave an overview of “The WalkUP Wake Up Call,” a report which emphasizes the economic potential of walkable, urban places in greater Washington, D.C. and how the region can serve as a model for the country for future real estate development.
Each year, the Steering Committee of LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors gathers in Washington to discuss and set the program’s federal policy agenda.
When LOCUS was formed in 2008, its Steering Committee consisted of a handful of committed real estate developers who believed the voice of the smart growth development community was missing from policy discussions in Washington. In a testament to how the program has grown since that time, our 2013 Winter Steering Committee meeting featured nearly 30 leading real estate developers and investors from across the country including our newest members, Rod Lawrence of The JBG Companies, and Jair Lynch of Jair Lynch Development Partners, both leading developers of walkable development in the DC metro area.
The Urban Land Institute (ULI)’s annual housing conference brings together housing professionals from across the country to discuss current challenges and opportunities for supporting a full spectrum of housing choices in cities and suburbs increasingly challenged by the new economy.
Joining the discussion at this year’s conference is LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors. LOCUS Managing Director Christopher Coes and Steering Committee member John Hempelmann, of Seattle-based business law firm Cairncross & Hempelmann, will join a panel discussion at the conference about federal involvement in real estate and how it might be reformed.
Trumbull Park Homes, a low-income housing development in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Robert R. Gigliotti via Flickr.
In January, Smart Growth America released Federal Involvement in Real Estate, a survey of over 50 federal programs that influence real estate in some way. This post is the second in a series taking a closer look at some of the programs included in that survey.
Congress began the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in 1986 to incentivize the private sector to develop more affordable rental units for low-income households. Since its creation, the credit has created or preserved nearly two million affordable rental units across the country.
The program offsets investors’ federal income tax liabilities, but the responsibility for administering the program is delegated to the states. States designate housing credit agencies to distribute a pool of tax credits from the U.S. Department of Treasury based on their population. In 2010, the amount of credits agencies received was equal to the greater of $2.10 per capita or $2,430,000. For example, the population of Oklahoma in 2010 was about 3.6 million people, so the state received about $7.7 million in tax credits, or 3.6 million multiplied by $2.10.
The Parker Ranch installation in Hawaii. Photo by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Earlier this month, Smart Growth America released Federal Involvement in Real Estate, a survey of over 50 federal programs that influence real estate in some way. This post is the second in a series taking a closer look at some of the programs included in that survey. Today’s post is about Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds .
Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (QECBs) give state and local governments a low-cost financing option to encourage energy conservation.
Funding from the program has been used to retrofit public buildings, to power buildings with renewable energy, and to improve public transit infrastructure. Authorized by Congress as part of the 2008 Energy Improvement and Extension Act, the original legislation allocated $800 million in federal funding to the effort and has since been increased to $3.2 billion as a result of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As of July 2012, about $760 million in allocated funding had been spent. Because QECBs do not have to be spent within a certain time period, a great deal remains untapped.
At first glance, the history of Cincinnati’s ‘Over-the-Rhine’ neighborhood resembles a storyline familiar to many of America’s urban neighborhoods – a once thriving immigrant community and booming industrial hub turned impoverished and destitute, only to experience a renaissance after decades of disinvestment.
However, there is more than meets-the-eye in regards to the dynamic history of Over-The-Rhine and it’s recent (and unlikely) revival. A unique partnership between city leaders, local corporations and private developers helped to pave the way for what is becoming one of America’s greatest smart growth success stories.