A research group dedicated to smart real estate development will have a big convention in downtown Seattle next year.

The Urban Land Institute’s spring meeting will be at the Washington State Convention Center in May 2–4, showing how innovative, tech-driven real estate development is transforming U.S. cities. Around 3,000 people routinely attend the conference.

Urban Renaissance Group CEO Pat Callahan and Wright Runstad & Co. President Greg Johnson are co-chairs of the host committee.

Conference sponsors include Amazon.com, Vulcan Real Estate (which developed Amazon’s South Lake Union campus) and Vancouver-based apartment company Holland Partner Group, which has built several large projects next to Amazon and is developing several more.

Seattle-based Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) will host a reception for all conference attendees at the online giant’s new Doppler high-rise office tower in downtown Seattle.

Seattle is among the top real estate markets in the country. Construction cranes are a common sight, and international and domestic investors are spending billions of dollars to buy and build projects.

Based on a survey and interviews of more than 2,000 real estate experts, ULI ranked Seattle as the fourth-best city in the country for investment and development prospects in 2017. The ranking is in the annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate industry forecast that ULI publishes with professional services firm PwC. Read More…