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Patrick J. Kiger and Mike Sheridan of Urban Land covered the 2019 ULI Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. They documented some of the insights that were shared at the meetings. Below is an excerpt with a link to the full article.

George Karayannis, head of CityNOW, Panasonic North America’s urban innovation division

Panasonic’s sustainable smart town development in Fujisawa, Japan, is an example of technology’s potential transformative impact, Karayannis says. The solar-powered community incorporates features such as shared mobility services that provide residents with electric cars and electricity-assisted bicycles, as well as an online portal to connect residents with health care services. Homes in the development are worth more than others nearby, Karayannis says. Smart technology “can drive superior ROI.”

Panasonic is teaming up with developer LC Fulenwider to build Peña Station Next, a smart town near Denver International Airport, which will use robotic shuttles and a sensor array that will continuously monitor environmental conditions, as well as traffic density and pedestrian count. The Denver project illustrates the importance of working with local government and residents to figure out which innovations meet their needs. “We define smart cities as whatever that collection of stakeholders defines as important. It can be tech-rich or tech-poor, but it’s never tech-led.”

Drew Myers, senior consultant at Washington, D.C.–based data analytics firm CoStar Group

“Smaller, local, or regionally based companies develop strategies that work well for them in markets they know well,” Myers says. “Outside of scaling up to major portfolio acquisitions and evaluations, companies may not see a need to deviate from past methods that have returned success. But we do believe analytics and real estate tech are critical to driving outsized performance in the increasingly competitive real estate environment and can aid CRE professionals across the spectrum.”

You can read the article here.