October 31, 2024
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How Can Cities Avoid the Urban Doom Loop?
In this episode of Conversations with the Best Minds in Real Estate, RCLCO Managing Director, Gregg Logan, sits down with Christopher B. Leinberger — co-founder of Places Platform LLC and RCLCO Alumnus — to discuss Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop, a recently released report from Cushman and Wakefield, in collaboration with Places Platform. The report puts 15 U.S. cities under the microscope to identify the real estate portfolios cities currently have versus what they need, given how much the economy has changed post-pandemic.
“We’re not saying to get out of the office business; we’re just saying build up the residential…people living within 2 miles of work are far more likely to come back to work–the worst thing people have in their life is a commute, that has always been viewed as the worst aspect of modern life. Getting the workers to live closer to their work is going to shore up office occupancy as well. There are all sorts of benefits to balancing the portfolio, but it is a balancing act. It’s not going all the way towards residential.”
– Chris on the continuing role of office in a healthy urban real estate portfolio.
One of the key findings of the study is that the real estate mix in many cities is no longer ideal for them to thrive: specifically, the study finds downtown real estate portfolios are too heavily weighted toward office space which is especially problematic in today’s economy. Chris and Gregg discuss the ramifications of this finding, and the report’s proposed strategies for cities to get back on track.
“We have found that it’s not a public private partnership that’s needed; it’s a private public partnership. All the research we’ve done has shown that every dollar of public money yields ten to 15 dollars of private money… I’m a great believer in both definitions of the Golden Rule, and the second definition is ‘he with the gold rules.’ So, if the private sector is going to bring in $15 for every one dollar of public… you better have the private sector take the lead.”
– Chris on the importance of the private sector when revitalizing downtowns
About Chris Leinberger
Co-Founding Partner and Managing Director Places Platform, LLC; Founding Partner of Arcadia Land Company.
Chris Leinberger is a land use strategist, proptech start-up co-founder, real estate developer, professor, researcher and author. He balances business realities with social and environmental issues. Leinberger was voted one of the “The 100 Most Influential Urbanists” of all time in a poll conducted by Planetizen in 2017.
Mr. Leinberger received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College, where he double majored in Political Science and Urban Sociology, and received an MBA from the Harvard Business School, concentrating in corporate strategic planning.
About Gregg Logan
Managing Director, RCLCO
Gregg Logan is a Managing Director at RCLCO, with over 40 years of experience in the industry. His expertise spans residential and commercial real estate, with particular expertise on mixed-use developments and master planned communities that incorporate residential, retail, office, industrial and distribution space.
In addition to his work with RCLCO, Gregg previously worked with a real estate developer as well as served as an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and universities, where he taught courses in Real Estate Development Methods and Real Estate Economics. Gregg’s expertise has been recognized in numerous publications where he has been quoted, and he has been a speaker at many national and regional conferences. Gregg is a graduate of UCLA.
