Perez, Dolce
LOS ANGELES-GlobeSt.com West Coast editor, Natalie Dolce, recently caught up with Katherine Aguilar Perez, executive director of Urban Land Institute Los Angeles, for a quick chat about development and the issues in valuing a sustainable building. Perez, who GlobeSt.com ranked as one of Southern California’s Women of Influence last year, is the former vice president of development for Forest City Development, and was co-founder and executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California.
Dolce: I know ULI Los Angeles has always been focused on development, on creating and sustaining communities, and on economic growth. Are you still focused on development at a time when there is little new construction?
Perez: There is no development that’s going to be happening for a while, and we recognize and understand that our challenge here at ULI is to really help our developer’s position and pivot toward future opportunities.
Dolce: What kinds of “future opportunities” do you mean?
Perez
Perez: We have been focused very clearly on the planning of future development areas, such as: infrastructure—particularly on the financing side…how to finance it, how to build it; and on things like high-speed rail. We are focused on helping to figure out how to stack the funding so that you are levering against public dollars.
Dolce: How does that compare to years past?
Perez: Three or four years ago, we were talking so much about mixed-use development, and how you get the sticks out of the ground. There is none of that now. It is all about regulatory evaluation now, such as SB 375 climate change act in California for example, and understanding its impact on the development and building community. It is now about looking at issues that pertain to water and regulatory considerations, such as where are the public dollars are being funneled—whether it’s the stimulus package or whether it is local support for transportation and infrastructure facilities development.
Dolce: I know you just recently had the ULI FutureBuild Conference. How was planning this year’s event different than last year?
Perez: Last year at the future build conference, we had this great opening panel with people from CBRE and Wells Fargo, among others…people who are on the finance side. Both this year and last year, we noticed that the panel’s biggest problems or challenges are that they aren’t figuring out a way to value properties and assets that have sustainability in them, so it is difficult for them to project and trend out what is the true valuation of a building today… You know, figuring out what its net present value is today vis-a-vie a building in 30 years that has benefitted from water reduction usage, energy reduction usage etc.
To read more GlobeSt.com coverage on ULI’s FutureBuild conference, which goes more in depth on valuing sustainable properties, on L.A.’s green movement and more, visit the links below.
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Natalie Dolce
Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.
