LOS ANGELES—USC takes home the Silver Shovel award at the annual NAIOP Real Estate Challenge after presenting an urban park with housing, retail and hospitality for the former Hawthorne indoor shopping mall.

COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO, CA—Clearing flood control channels, stockpiling sandbags and holding public outreach meetings in flood-prone areas are just a few things County departments are doing to prepare for El Niño storms this fall and winter.

PHOENIX— Arizona is proving a natural fit for data centers, where footprint flexibility has proven to be a key driver in data centers, an industry expected to record revenue growth of 14% during the next two years.

CHICAGO—Tech firms here attracted more than $412 million in venture capital funding in the past year and employed 104,869 workers in 2014.