PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Lodging Econometrics (LE) released its latest U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report, which found that at the close of Q4 2020, New York City regained its spot as the market with the largest hotel pipeline: 150 projects totaling 25,640 rooms. It has been more than six quarters since New York City’s pipeline led all U.S. markets. Los Angeles followed with 148 projects/24,808 rooms, then Dallas with 147 projects/17,756 rooms, Atlanta with 140 projects/19,863 rooms (a record-high number of rooms), and Orlando with 112 projects/19,764 rooms (a record-high pipeline project count for the market).
New York City also had the most projects currently under construction—108 projects totaling 19,439 rooms—and the highest number of construction starts in the fourth quarter with 14 projects/2,617 rooms. Atlanta followed New York City with the highest number of projects under construction—46 projects/6,728 rooms—and then Los Angeles with 40 projects/7,131 rooms, Dallas with 39 projects/4,656 rooms, and Austin with 33 projects/4,850 rooms.
Despite COVID-19’s impact on hotel development, there are four markets in the United States that announced more than 10 new construction projects in Q4 2020: Miami with 18 projects/2,756 rooms, Orlando with 18 projects/4,806 rooms, New York with 17 projects/2,700 rooms, and Atlanta with 11 projects/1,843 rooms.
LE has also seen an increase in announced renovation and brand conversion activity over the last few quarters. At year-end 2020, there were 1,308 projects/210,124 rooms nationwide undergoing a renovation or conversion. Of the 1,308 renovation and conversion projects, 625 of those are in the top 50 markets. There are nine markets in the United States that currently have more than 20 renovation and conversion projects underway; these are led by Los Angeles with 28 projects, followed by Phoenix, Washington, D.C., Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, New York, and Norfolk, Va.
The top 50 markets saw 399 hotels/52,581 rooms open in 2020. LE is forecasting these same 50 markets to open another 509 projects/66,475 rooms in 2021, and 575 projects/71,025 rooms in 2022.
