Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

Hypotheses: We developed a series of hypotheses before starting this research.

1. Downtown WalkUPs are currently facing unique challenges. The potential for a doom loop would mainly be focused on one of the four WalkUP subtypes: Downtowns. Most Downtown Adjacent, Urban Commercial and Urban Universities are doing well economically, though perception of a Downtown WalkUP doom loop may negatively influence the perception of the other three subtypes, as they are found “guilty by association.” 2. The city crime spike in 2020 created the perception that cities were unsafe, and it would take years to both reduce crime and change this negative perception. 3. Downtown WalkUPs have violated portfolio theory. Downtowns put most of their real estate inventory in office space, concentrating most of their product program in one basket. Downtown Adjacent, Urban Commercial and Urban University WalkUPs have a more diversified portfolio, which has eased their recent recoveries. 4. WalkUPs have an outsized impact on cities. Collectively, the four WalkUP subtypes occupy very little city land mass (3% to 5%) but generate 25% to 50% of the city’s GDP and an equally high percentage of fiscal (tax) revenues for the city budget.

The rest of this study will test these hypotheses and explore other key findings:

Virtuous Cycles Description of the concepts of doom loops and virtuous cycles, with several historical case studies of cities that reversed or avoided a doom loop.

Real Estate Performance Analysis of the real estate economics in the 15 cities in

The Purpose of Place

Reimagining the City Conclusions from the study and recommendations for how WalkUPs can optimize real estate to maximize positive outcomes, focusing on real estate valuations and GDP growth.

Exploration of the importance of placemaking in cities, and the impact of visitor traffic, crime and homelessness.

this study, with a focus on product portfolio makeup, performance (i.e., rents and valuations), GDP production, and a proprietary Places Platform, LLC /Cushman & Wakefield Product Diversity Index.

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