Is there any better City in America to study Real Estate? Seattle is in the middle of a real estate boom underpinned by extraordinary growth from “new industry” companies like Amazon, Costco, Starbucks and Microsoft—not to mention other corporate traditional giants like Boeing. New commercial high rises are going up, one on the books for over 100 stories, at least 52 cranes on the horizon, and a commitment from the Mayor to build 50,000 new apartment units in the next 15 years, 20,000 of which are to be “affordable”. We have the most sustainable building in the world just completed by the Bullitt Center and many other examples of how sustainability (a core value of the program) is working in our current environment. Talented real estate leaders with an advanced degree are in demand!
Peter Orser shares his thoughts on the 3rd Annual Real Estate Symposium…
The Runstad Center just completed its 3rd annual joint Real Estate conference with the Foster School on December 8th. The program featured Robert Feldstein the Director for policy and innovation for Mayor Ed Murray. He spoke eloquently on the progress the City is making on tough policy issues like Affordable Housing having just published the long awaited HALA report and transportation improvement opportunities just funded through the almost Billion Dollar transportation levy which passed with a huge 64% majority.
From there we spent the morning with two extraordinary panels, one on affordable housing opportunities and the other on Transportation issues. The panels were designed to bring some disruptive thinking to the advancement of these issues- or as one panelist put it, “throw some dynamite into the log jam”—and they certainly did that and more.
Over the next 25 years we expect 400,000 new jobs and 500,000 new residents within a City area of 84 square miles. A daunting challenge, but it appears we have the willingness and the brain power to meet this challenge while at the same time respecting the character and natural environment that has made Seattle a top economic driver in the first place. It was a honor to host such a provocative event, but that’s what a University should do and the Runstad Center clearly is taking that mission to heart.
Dr. Enrico Moretti’s keynote speech at the 2nd Annual Leadership Dinner continues to receive buzz, read more on Allison Partners blog. Read more on Dr. Moretti’s research here.
Please join the Foster School of Business and Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies for an engaging discussion on urban growth and infrastructure featuring Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, Professor Raphael Bostic (former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), Kevin Desmond (General Manager of King County Metro), and others. DATE: Tuesday, December 8, 2015 TIME: 8:30 a.m. — 12:00 p.m. PLACE: Anthony’s Forum (UW Seattle Campus, Dempsey Hall) AGENDA:
8:30 – Event check-in
8:45 – Welcome and opening remarks: Tracey Seslen, Foster School
8:50 – Keynote Speaker: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray
9:20 – Affordable Housing: What Will It Take?
10:35 – Break
10:45 – Transportation: What is the Shortest Distance to Better Mobility?
During Enrico Moretti’s visit to Seattle last week to speak at the Runstad Center Leadership Dinner, he was interviewed by the Daily Journal of Commerce. He spoke about how an increase in tech jobs relate to booming cities like Seattle. Read more from Enrico Moretti’s interview with the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce here
KUOW interviewed Enrico Moretti, the keynote speaker of our 2nd Annual Leadership Dinner, about the rapid growth of Seattle. How do we avoid making the mistakes that cities have made in the past? Listen to the interview here
Enrico Moretti, Ph.D., our speaker at this evening’s Runstad Center Leadership Dinner, sat down with the Puget Sound Business Journal to talk about the future of wages in Seattle and how they depend on housing development. We are thrilled Enrico is sharing his .knowledge and ideas with our community tonight.
MSRE student Brooke Shorett shares more highlights from the 2015 ULI Fall Meeting…
Earlier this month, the Runstad Center sent many of its students to San Francisco for ULI’s Fall Meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet real estate students and professionals from all over the world and hear from a multitude of fantastic and diverse speakers. We also had the privilege of meeting more intimately with several companies that had ties to the Runstad Center.
The group outside of Equilibrium Capital
One of the highlights of the conference was a tour throughout the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood, a historically underdeveloped area that has seen recent rejuvenation in the office market. The tour focused on the redevelopment of older industrial buildings into successful office spaces. A good portion of SoMa is zoned by the city as PDR (Production, Distribution, and Repair), equivalent to light industrial, which presents unique challenges for leasing and function.
888 Brannan
In particular, we looked at 888 Brannan, a historic industrial building that is now home to some of San Francisco’s most innovative companies. The main tenant of the space is Airbnb, who leases nearly 170,000 square feet. Conforming to trends in the tech industry, they have open floor plates with shared “living rooms,” and a company cafeteria on the top floor featuring the best views the building has to offer. Perhaps most interesting, though, were the unique design touches that Airbnb added at their own expense to make the place mirror their vision and make their employees feel at home.
888 Brannan’s lobby
They’ve crafted each of their conference rooms to look like a different residence featured on Airbnb, complete with unique details like a functioning sliding barn door or a complete replica of the living room the founders lived in when they first started the company. The lobby features a living wall and huge skylights that let in the sunshine, and they’ve added far more bike parking than is required to cater to their employees commuting habits. There are abundant common areas with couches and café tables to make the environment feel more like home than an office.
To top it all off, the next day ULI hosted Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s co-founder and CEO, as a keynote speaker. It was great to hear about his company from his perspective and see how his vision really matched the feel of the office space he helped curate. The whole experience was extremely valuable in providing context for what we learn about every day in class – and I would highly recommend attending the ULI Fall Meeting in the future!
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