One point I am going to research regarding downtowns. I am going to focus on the areas around "landmark" buildings. These landmarked buildings may be a "center" to holding or offer appreciating value depending on their use.
Suppose history has shown that the last building standing in a revitalized area, and ready to be torn down because it is worth more as a different use but now landmarked. My idea would be to extrapolate the value in reverse.
With more activists being gatekeepers of neighborhoods, a building might have landmarked (or proposed) status yet the neighborhood has not even begun to be developed.
It might be a better place to start looking rather than just plunk down some money on a place because it is shiny and new, a developer may not have considered anything except for the ease of building or the low land costs.