Engineering Inc - July/August 2019 - 11

'18-Hour Cities' Gain Commercial
Real Estate Attention
For some time, real estate investors
have touted the benefits and
stability of developing projects
in 24-hour cities, but the new
buzzword in commercial real estate
circles is "18-hour cities."
What are 18-hour cities? They
are neither 24-hour cities, nor are
they 9-to-5 cities that empty of life
when the workday ends. Although
there is not an official list, most
experts agree that in the United
States, the 24-hour cities are the
real estate markets of Boston,
Chicago, Los Angeles, New York,
San Francisco and Washington,
D.C. Other cities often considered
24-hour? Miami and Philadelphia.
The 18-hour city has many of
the same attributes of a 24-hour
city without the density or
around-the-clock vibrancy. These
include urban amenities, access
to mass transit and walkable
neighborhoods, along with
suburban qualities such as good
schools and green space. Additional
qualities-and what is largely
attracting residents, including older

millennials-are a lower cost of
living and doing business within
diverse and growing economies.
As with 24-hour cities, no
official list exists, but the top
18-hour cities seeing growth
and success are featured on the
map below. "Emerging Trends in
Real Estate 2019," by PwC and
the Urban Land Institute, notes
that 17 of the top 20 growing
real estate markets fall into this
18-hour category. "The projected
average annual population growth
over the next five years in the 17
markets is 1.3 percent compared
with 0.7 percent for the United
States as a whole," according to
the report.
Because these 18-hour cities
have become increasingly diversified economically-compared to
established 24-hour cities that
remain space-constrained and
prohibitively expensive for many
developers-their attractiveness
to commercial and residential
real estate developers is expected
to continue.

Commercial &
Residential Real Estate
Commercial &
Residential Real Estate

Intermodal &
Logistics

Intermodal & Logistics

Energy & Utilities

Energy &
Utilities

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Health Care &
Science+Technology
Health Care &
Science+Technology

Economic
Outlook

Annual Economic Outlook

Public-Private

Public-Private
Partnerships (P3s)
Partnerships (P3s)

The Private Side is a
regular department of
Engineering Inc., focusing
on the private-sector markets
listed above, and information
and insights on public-private
partnerships and economic
data relevant to the industry.
For more on these topics,
subscribe to ACEC's bimonthly
Private Industry Briefs:
https://programs.acec.org/
industrybrief/.

Erin McLaughlin is ACEC's senior
director of private market resources.
She can be reached at emclaughlin@
acec.org.

TOP 10 "18-HOUR CITIES"

■
Salt Lake City
■ Denver
Charlotte
■
■ Nashville

■
Raleigh/Durham

■
Atlanta
Dallas/Fort Worth
■
■ Austin

■ Orlando
■
Tampa/St. Petersburg

JULY / AUGUST 2019

ENGINEERING INC.

11
https://programs.acec.org/industrybrief/
Engineering Inc - July/August 2019

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