TOD is becoming “a universal theme across the U.S.”

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With snapshots of projects in Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Austin, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Washington DC, as well as smaller places like Bellevue, WA and Herndon, VA, The New York Times this week made clear that cities across the country are leveraging transit investments to create TOD and generate economic growth:

“Clearly, any sort of big transit infrastructure program can act as a huge stimulus for the development of surrounding real estate,” said Scott Homa, a director of United States office research for Jones Lang LaSalle, a global property company. “It’s starting to emerge as a universal theme across the U.S.”

The article makes clear just how much value real estate developers put on transit access when considering the viability of new development projects:

Bert Gregory, a partner with the architecture firm Mithun…recalled a conversation a few years ago in which a developer told him that rail stops had replaced intersecting freeways as “100 percent” sure-to-succeed locations…”Transit is the nature of development interest and of developer focus today,” he said.

One place where this trend is playing out is Nashville, TN. During her State of the Metro Address last month, Mayor Megan Barry announced her intention to move forward with the planning of a transit-oriented city. This week, academics from Vanderbilt University weighed in on the idea and explained that in order to be a true net positive, TOD must be paired with strategies to maintain housing affordability. The authors outline several ideas of how Nashville—and other cities–can make that happen.

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Recent TOD news

Here’s what has been happening this week at TOD projects across the country.