– Fostering Interdisciplinary Discussions on Urban Planning and Real Estate –
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN REAL ESTATE IN TIMES OF CRISIS
02/10/20 | 16-17:00 (CET)
The aim of this session is to discuss the significance and changing role of CSR in real estate development practices. If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us it is that ‘we are all in this together’. In the current global socio-economic context, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a business strategy comes into clear focus. A recent article by McKinsey calls for bold actions by real estate players to foster deep relationships with stakeholders within and beyond their organisational boundaries, even to earn tenants’ “respect, trust and loyalty.” Standpoints like this open new doors for organisations involved in the financing, development and construction of urban real estate to (re)align their CSR strategies.
We approach CSR from a specific urban planning and development perspective. The Financial Crisis of 2008, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement have arguably played a significant role in pushing CSR forward. However, the focus has primarily been placed on environmental policies and organizational governance, leaving the social dimensions of the concept and their effects on cities largely open for interpretation. Therefore, we focus on the distinct interplay between the ‘social’ components of CSR and their potential impact in property development practices, beyond the scale of individual buildings. Furthermore, we look ahead: COVID-19 has accentuated vulnerabilities within many urban societies, including social isolation, small homes and the lack of urban amenities. Can and will these social elements be included in the scope of CSR, and will this pandemic correspondingly change the future of urban real estate development?
SPEAKERS
LISETTE VAN DOORN
Chief Executive
- Urban Land Institute Europe -
MENDEL GIEZEN
Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development & Planning
- University of Amsterdam -
HANS OP 'T VELD
Head of Responsible Investment
- PGGM Investments -
Research Fellow
- Amsterdam School of Real Estate -
THE RISE AND METAMORPHOSIS OF PROPERTY INVESTMENT MANAGERS
30/10/20 | 16-17:00 (CET)
Investment managers are a type of institutional property investors who play an increasingly dominant role in real estate. In Amsterdam’s residential property market, investment managers constituted just a small proportion of investment actors before the 2008 financial crisis. Following the crisis, however, investment managers started to occupy more powerful positions: a small number of investment managers were responsible for large shares of the total investment transactions. This ‘success’ did not remain unnoticed. From 2014 onward, once the economy recovered, we can observe the emergence of many new actors in the residential property market, whereby a fine-grained picture of numerous investment managers with small market shares stands out.
The aim of this seminar session is to discuss the rise and metamorphosis of investment managers in Amsterdam. Who are these investment managers? What gave rise to their growth? How do they behave? And to what extent are they influenced by planning and policy agendas? In much critical urban studies literature, investors are generalized and knowledge on investor differentiations is limited. Even though issues surrounding institutional investment in cities have received heightened attention in recent years, sub-categories of institutional investors are seldom discussed. The session highlights why in-depth research on investment managers requires interdisciplinary and inter-professional bridges and is urgently needed to further our understanding of contemporary urban investment dynamics and its effects on cities.
SPEAKERS
MARLEEN BOSMA-VERHAEGH
Head of Research & Strategic Advisory
- Bouwinvest -
TUNA TASAN-KOK
Professor of Urban Governance and Planning
- University of Amsterdam -
XAVIER JONGEN
Managing Director
- Catella Residential Investment Management -
COVID-19 AND RISK ASSESSMENTS ON HOSPITALITY PROPERTY HOLDING DECISIONS
13/11/20 | 16-17:00 (CET)
This session responds to the COVID-19 pandemic’s ongoing effects on the hospitality industry, which has spurred renewed conversations on risks associated with hospitality properties. It focuses on the approaches to risk of different actors involved in hospitality property holding – with close attention to how owners, lenders, operators, and brands identify risks in hospitality properties.
The session aims to bridge knowledge between owners, lenders, operators, brands, and academics with a focus on identifying various strategies and solutions which help mitigate risks associated with hospitality property transactions and holdings. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the webinar focuses hospitality properties and challenges the expert panelists to identify short and long term risks associated with properties in light of current market conditions, regulatory frameworks, and global public health crisis. In doing so, the session of the webinar series aims to better bridge the academy with practice – bridging expert knowledge on complex subjects with contemporary practice.
SPEAKERS
ADAM NOWAK
Associate Professor of Economics
- West Virginia University -
JONATHAN FALIK
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
- JF Capital Advisors -
KAREN FRIEBE
Partner
- Bird & Bird -
MIXED-USE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AS A TOOL FOR RISK MITIGATION
11/12/20 | 16-17:00 (CET)
Planning, property developers, real estate investors, and other stakeholders consistently encounter risk in the transformation processes of the built environment. This materializes from different perspectives including climate change mitigation and adaptation, investment capital allocation, and social and political fragmentation, to name a few. An increasingly method to deter risk in the city building process by these different stakeholders is to create large scale mixed-use developments, to integrate different types of neighbourhood and urban functions in one place. Current processes and relationships in the urban development realm are not standardized, and can therefore limit the implementation of mixed-use development projects, or continue to scale them further. A key risk that stems from mixed-use development projects is the uncertainty from interactions and relationships between urban planners, property developers, and real estate investors in the production of new built spaces.
In the background of this rise of mixed-use development, there has been an evolution of the commercial real estate (CRE) sector in the past two decades, amounting to record CRE investment volumes at the end of 2019 in Europe, as published by global real estate firm CBRE. With increasing urbanization, shifting demographics and substantial real estate investor interest, urban planning and property development are beginning to further collide with commercial production and investor-driven interested in urban real estate, whether they want to or not.
This session aims to discuss the varying perspectives on mixed-use urban development, this collision between urban planners, developers, and investors, each related to the planning sector and property development sector in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, with additional experience from European cities, and other parts of the world. So, how can mixed-use property development be defined? How do relationships between different types of property developers, investors, and the public sector support mixed-use development? What are the risks that different actors in the urban transformation process expect when they seek to interact with each other? Discussion from this session will cover questions such as these, to examine the complexities of the contemporary landscape of built environment transformation.
SPEAKERS
HERMAN KOK
Vice President & Head of Research
- MARK -
GERT-JOOST PEEK
Owner
- SPOTON Consulting -
Lecturer
- Amsterdam School of Real Estate -
JOCHEM DE VRIES
Department Chair & Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
- University of Amsterdam -