Contracting for Better Places: A Relational Analysis of Development Agreements in Urban Development Projects

Large-scale urban development projects aim to create better places in underused or deteriorated areas. For their realization, cooperation between planning authorities and market parties is indispensable. Contracting for Better Places focuses on the development agreements that these parties close. It follows from the relational contract theory that, as the projects evolve over time, these agreements have to promote relational values such as trust and flexibility. This work displays four interesting cases: Battery Park City and Hudson Yards (both in New York City), Zuidas (Amsterdam) and King’s Cross (London). The content, meaning and function of real-life development agreements of these focal projects are studied and criticized. The conclusions have a case-specific as well as a more general character. Therefore, this book is of value for academics as well as practitioners as it conducts some pioneering work in a field that has not been subject of much research yet.