Fixing the Housing Crisis: How Retail Centers Are a Solution to Alleviating Our Housing Needs
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Sessions Information

  • April 21 - 21, 2022
    1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
    Event: 2022 ULI Spring Meeting
    Session Type: Concurrent Session
    Session Capacity: N/A


    It is well known that California faces an ongoing housing crisis—both the quantity and affordability of available residential units are major barriers to homeownership as well as rental viability, exacerbating homelessness and adversely affecting quality of life for many. Simultaneously, the pandemic accelerated the demise of traditional retail strip centers, enclosed shopping malls, and big-box stores, propping up the widespread use of online retailers while rendering many traditional commercial developments as ghost towns facing diminished revenues and potential closure. However, when considered in tandem, these phenomena present a potentially paradigm-shifting opportunity—by converting existing commercial centers into mixed-use developments with denser, more affordable residences as we...
Session Speakers
Garcia David
Organization: Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley


David Garcia is the Policy Director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. He leads the center's engagement in local, state and federal housing policy and supports the generation of research-driven policy ideas, proposals, and papers. David's work and insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and NPR. I

Lohman Ted


As VP, Development, Ted oversees a team responsible for the planning and execution of a number of projects. Part of the team since 2005, he has worked on over $1 Billion of projects in multiple states. He is currently working on master planning and entitlement pursuit for 3 projects in San Diego as well as 2 projects in Houston. Ted holds a Civil Engineering degree from USC and an MBA from SDS

Pezeshkpour Ali
Organization: City of Santa Ana - Planning and Building Agency - M20


Ali Pezeshkpour is a Principal Planner with the City of Santa Ana and member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He has been working for the City of Santa Ana since February 2011, where he oversees the Current Planning section of the Planning Division, which includes development processing, public counter, historic preservation and urban design, and cannabis programs. Recent,

Watkins Andrew
Organization: SWA Group


Andrew Watkins is an architect, planner and urban designer with over 20 years of professional experience. As a principal at SWA in Southern California, his work focuses on large-scale urban design projects that explore the confluence of ecology and urbanism. Andrew has led the design of community plans, urban design and new city planning projects in diverse locales, the United States, China, Indo
Session Fees

Fees information is not available at this time.