The glitterati of global real estate are descending on Miami this week, amid a worldwide credit crisis sparked by reckless lending in the U.S. property market.

More than 5,000 professionals from around the world -- Tokyo developers, German bankers, San Francisco architects, Saudi Arabian property owners, among them -- are attending the fall meeting of The Urban Land Institute.

The four-day conclave puts industry leaders and public policymakers together to discuss everything from the art of transit-oriented development to navigating the ongoing financial turmoil.

This year the group is exploring what cities should look like in 2050.

It's the first time Washington, D.C.-based ULI, a nonprofit research and educational group with offices around the world, has held its annual gathering in Miami. Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former Mexico president Vicente Fox are keynote speakers.

ULI president Richard Rosan sat down with The Miami Herald recently to talk about the conference and some of the challenges the real estate industry now faces.

Q. What needs to be done to resolve the current financial crisis?

A. It's a big ditch. The way out is we need a huge amount of government intervention because there has been a complete loss of confidence in the ability to trade money and finance things. I was in New York with finance guys recently and they are just sitting there and nothing is happening.

No one had any idea how global the money world had become. Trillions of dollars were circling around the world. It wasn't very long ago, 12 or 14 months ago, when people said the U.S. will go into a recession, and everyone said we're delinked. Asia is separate and they will survive. We've delinked Europe. Baloney, everything is tied together.

It looks like we are on the right track now. But the answer is continued government intervention to do it, and stimulus.

Q. What do you make of the South Florida real estate market?

A. You have something that is not pervasive around country; you have a huge amount of empty condominiums because of overbuilding or whatever it is. The silver lining in Miami is that it's here; you have them built. Once you have them built, they're available and as the world changes, it will become an asset rather than a liability. It doesn't mean the guys who own them right now are going to be doing too well.

I think your downtown development is brilliant here. I think the policies in Miami have been terrific -- making it a dense urban environment. Longer term it has got to be a positive thing.

Q. Does the ULI embrace the idea of creating densely built urban centers, and has it taken a position on the sprawl we have seen in so many U.S. metropolitan areas?

A. We believe that the whole issue of climate change and energy has brought everyone together to make us realize we can't continue to let this country sprawl out forever and ever.

We can't have people driving an hour to work, using up all this fuel and time. We have long, for many years, been in favor of transit-oriented development and denser building.

That doesn't mean to say you won't have to build a lot of new buildings in places that maybe aren't in downtown. Because there are not enough places in downtowns around country to house the population that is going to hit us. But it should be close to downtown and there should be ways to get there.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@