Future Cities
Looking Forward
July 28, 2025 3 Minute Read
Resilience and adaptation, long-term thinking and innovation create opportunities for enduring value.
Our Take Newsletter
Our Take is CBRE’s monthly newsletter, delivering unique insights into today’s most pressing topics.
Learn More
It’s the peak of summer (in the northern hemisphere, at least) and, for many, a chance to catch up on some much-needed rest and spend time with family and friends. Even so, ongoing economic and geopolitical events, combined with the constant chatter surrounding technological advancement, remain on the minds of decision-makers in commercial real estate and across industries.
So we felt it was a good moment to reflect on the big ideas our leaders have shared in “Our Take” this year. From the ongoing adaptation of cities and the evolving investment market to the innovations (and challenges) of AI and other emerging tech, these perspectives provide context and a compass for navigating the months ahead.
First, it’s clear that cities are having a moment.
Gateway cities in the U.S. are reinventing themselves to attract a growing wave of residents and employers. Several of our leaders have offered strategies for how cities can ensure today’s moment leads to enduring transformation.
In April’s “Our Take,” Larisa Ortiz, managing director of Public & Non-Profit Solutions, Place Consulting at Streetsense, called for a radical reinvention of central business districts. Writing on the existential challenges and disruptions facing our downtowns, she said, “rather than fight the change, we need to think differently. What if we reimagined downtowns as places that people actually want to be, not just places they have to go?”
Larisa pointed to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan’s Financial District as a model for how policy, investment and creativity can reshape urban cores.
Similarly, in February, our Seattle market leader John Miller explored the city’s journey from decline to resurgence: “With increased focus on public safety, infrastructure improvements and the reimagining of downtown spaces, Seattle is addressing legacy challenges while laying the groundwork to reclaim its status as a gateway market.”
He recounted firsthand how his city’s rebound shows how targeted investment and civic collaboration can bring back a sense of vibrancy and investor confidence in challenged urban markets.
Resilience and adaptability are essential in shaping the future of our cities and are foundational for driving strategic, forward-looking decision-making—an idea that our contributors reinforced in their commentaries on the real estate investment market more broadly.
And as cities transition toward more live-work-play environments, investors have a generational opportunity to lock in high returns while alleviating America’s housing shortage.
Embracing long-term thinking is essential for investors to see past the short-term volatility of today’s market.
Focusing on real estate investment, last month, Kevin Moosbrugger reinforced the considerable value achieved in taking the long view through a disciplined investment lens.
“Run every real estate decision through a simple expected value framework,” he wrote. “This approach may not be perfect, but it does drive transparency and accountability and helps to focus decisions around solid bets.”
At the same time, Kevin underscored the urgency of movement in today’s market: “Perfection is a tax with a steep price. Momentum rewards movers and hesitation compounds nothing.” And he called for leaders to embrace calculated risk and seize emerging opportunities before they pass.
Ultimately, long-term thinking can help decision makers weather short-term disruptions and capitalize on enduring trends—paving the way for transformative advancements.
And this brings us to the third big theme our contributors wrote on: technology.
AI and emerging tech are no doubt transforming our industry—but innovation comes at a cost.
In sectors driven by innovation, like life sciences and data centers, taking a long-term perspective is key to building value. But while some breakthroughs need time to incubate, others require more urgency.
Case in point: The rapid advancement of AI can’t wait long for energy providers to catch up.
In May’s newsletter, Pat Lynch wrote about the urgent need to modernize utility infrastructure to support the AI boom: “What’s often overlooked is how the demand for AI is reshaping global utility infrastructure—and how unprepared we might be to manage it.”
Additionally, while many of the largest data centers are being powered by fossil fuels like natural gas and coal today, Pat noted that operators and end users are pushing for greener, more sustainable solutions.
“Bridging the utility gap isn’t optional,” he wrote. “It’s foundational for enabling the AI-driven future.”
He called for developing a national approach for accessing large-scale power and working with the utility sector to make allocating resources more timely, cost-effective and predictable. “With enough attention and urgency, I believe we’ll see real movement—not in years, but in months—toward a more sustainable power future. But we can’t afford to wait.”
While people marvel at the incredible speed at which AI is being adopted and the changes it will usher in, some innovations, such as biotech and life sciences, still require time to develop so they can be deployed in ways that create the largest impact.
Reflecting on his 30 years in the biotech industry, in March, Matt Gardner acknowledged the long-run cycles of biotech science against shorter-term business cycles, and called for investors to take the long view in this sometimes volatile, but highly consequential and innovative market.
“Biotech research cycles may be long,” he wrote, “but the rewards are, literally, life-changing and, often, lifesaving. And the smart capital is unafraid.”
It’s about adapting to change and overcoming challenges to create opportunities.
And this encapsulates how our subject-matter experts have laid out their roadmaps for how to thrive through the rest of 2025 and beyond.
Resilience will allow cities to withstand shocks. Long-term thinking will position today’s investors for opportunity. And tech innovation will provide the agility needed to navigate a shifting landscape.
These aren’t just themes. They’re strategic imperatives that will be essential to shaping value in the months and years ahead.
Related Insights
-
Rotate capital now. Conviction beats perfection.
-
The grid may be the real bottleneck. What can we do today to address the surge in power demand?
-
It’s time to reimagine our central business districts.
-
Take the long view on opportunities in the life sciences sector.
-
Seattle is poised for a renaissance. What’s needed to reclaim its gateway market status?
