Welcome to the first issue of Development under the Commercial Real Estate Development Association brand. While our name has changed, the purpose behind this magazine remains the same: to highlight the people, projects and ideas shaping the future of our industry.
This issue is, in many ways, about evolution. We’re proud to celebrate Ryan Companies, our 2026 Developer of the Year, whose work reflects the vision, innovation and leadership that continue to move commercial real estate forward. You’ll also explore the transformation of Belleview Station in Denver and learn how new zoning rules and tax incentives are helping unlock a fresh wave of office-to-residential conversions in New York City.
That same spirit of evolution extends beyond development itself. As rising electricity costs and a maturing market reshape investment decisions, renewable energy is becoming a business strategy as much as a sustainability initiative. And as our industry navigates changing risks, we’re pleased to feature highlights from the CREDA Research Foundation’s latest report, Insights on Managing Physical Risk in Commercial Real Estate, which offers practical guidance for an increasingly complex landscape.
Our brand launch marks an exciting new era for our association, and it also reflects something much bigger: an industry that never stands still. It evolves, adapts and finds new ways to create lasting value for the communities it serves. We look forward to continuing to tell those stories in every issue.
Kathryn Hamilton, CAE
Editor-in-Chief
In Brief
Notable facts and figures on the state of the commercial real estate industry, culled from media reports and other sources.
Industry Outlook
70% The percentage of commercial real estate investors indicating a preference to hold assets in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 7 percentage points from the prior quarter, according to results from SitusAMC Insights’ proprietary quarterly survey. At the same time, the preference for buying fell from 30% to 26%, and the preference to sell decreased from 7% to 4%, supporting the “view of an increasingly gummed-up CRE market.”
Data Centers
1,135.9 MW
The amount of inventory that Northern Virginia, the world’s largest data center market, added in the first quarter of the year. Despite that substantial new supply, the region’s vacancy rate stood at a record-low 0.3%, according to CBRE’s Global Data Center Trends 2026 report. Dallas-Fort Worth posted the second-largest inventory gain (379.9 megawatts) in North America and now ranks as the region’s third-largest market behind Northern Virginia and Atlanta.
Office
4 The number of consecutive years leasing volumes for law firms have reached record levels in the United States, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Firms leased 4.6 million square feet of office space in the first quarter of the year, one of the strongest openings on record. “Most legal leases reflect stability or growth, with expansions rising and downsizing becoming less common in recent years, signaling sustained confidence in long-term growth expectations and the importance of the office for law firm performance.”
Retail
12.5% The amount that visits to U.S.
retail corridors in the second quarter of the year ran below 2019 levels. As noted by Placer.ai,
the first-half numbers are a reversal of the gains made in 2025, when the gap in retail corridor visits compared with 2019 narrowed to 9.5% in the second quarter. On a brighter note, Friday and Saturday night retail corridor traffic now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. This “reflects what’s happening on the ground in downtowns nationwide, where restaurants are driving retail leasing activity and cities are increasingly investing in programming that attracts visitors after hours.”
Multifamily
$1,763 The average U.S. multifamily advertised rent in June, a modest increase of $4 over the prior month, as noted in a Yardi Matrix multifamily national report. “Rents rose 0.7% during the second quarter and 1.0% during the first half of the year. While positive, both measures remain well below the pace recorded during the immediate post-pandemic period and pre-pandemic norms.” By comparison, rents typically increased 2.7% during the first half of the year and 1.8% in the second quarter from 2013 to 2019, according to the report.
Artificial Intelligence
35% The percentage of institutional commercial real estate investors in an independent survey who said they trust AI to score and rank opportunities, as detailed in the Dealpath
report The 2026 State of AI in CRE Investing: Adoption Without Impact. The same survey found that 55% of respondents trust AI to summarize diligence documents, while 49% trust it to enrich deal data.
Hospitality
18.7% The amount that revenue per
available room went up for hoteliers in host markets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament’s group stage from June 11-27, according to data from STR/CoStar and as reported by Bisnow. Nonhost markets recorded a 7.9% improvement over the same period. The host sites were Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico; Toronto and Vancouver in Canada; and Los Angeles, Boston, New York/New Jersey, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle and Kansas City in the U.S.
Future CREDA Events
CREDA Conference,
Oct. 5-7, 2026, Denver
Chapter Leadership and
Legislative Retreat,
Feb. 1-3, 2027, Washington, D.C.
I.CON West:
The Industrial Conference,
March 9-10, 2027, Los Angeles
Forums Symposium,
March 30-April 1, 2027, Nashville
Most Popular
From Summer 2026
1. “Gateway vs. Secondary Cities:
The New Investor Road Map”
(credaglobal.org/gatewayvssecondary)
2. “Reinventing Suburban Offices”
(credaglobal.org/26reinventing)
3. “Cold Storage Investment: The Case
for Temperature-controlled Real Estate”
(credaglobal.org/26coldstorage)
4. “Bringing Data Centers to Brownfields”
(credaglobal.org/26databrownfields)
5. “The Rust Belt Renaissance”
(credaglobal.org/rust-belt-renaissance)
