According to the latest "U.S. Construction Pipeline Trend Report" released by Lodging Econometrics, New York City continues to hold the lead in U.S. markets for the most projects in the construction pipeline with 145 hotels and 24,762 rooms underway at the end of the first quarter. The U.S. markets that follow are Los Angeles with 144 hotels and 23,994 rooms, Dallas with 135 hotels and 16,260 rooms, Atlanta with 132 hotels and 18,264 rooms and Orlando with 98 hotels and 17,536 rooms.
New York City has the greatest number of projects under construction with 110 hotels with 19,457 rooms. Following New York City with the highest number of projects under construction is Los Angeles with 39 hotels with 6,657 rooms, and then Atlanta with 39 hotels with 5,500 rooms, Dallas with 32 hotels with 3,795 rooms, and Orlando with 27 hotels with 4,693 rooms.
The top 50 markets in the U.S. announced a total of 74 new projects with 10,219 rooms during the quarter. The leading markets for new project announcements include Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., with six hotels with 633 rooms; Los Angeles with five projects accounting for 768 rooms; Phoenix with five hotels and 402 rooms; Nashville with four hotels and 692 rooms; and San Diego with 4 hotels and 474 rooms.
New project announcements have been slow in the wake of the pandemic, but developers increasingly are optimistic and anxious to move forward with new projects as the country fully reopens, according to LE.
Lodging Econometrics also reported an increase in renovation and brand conversion activity throughout the top 50 markets. During the quarter, 1,198 hotels with 190,475 rooms were in the renovation/conversion pipeline. There are more than 10 markets in the U.S. that currently have more than 15 substantial renovation and conversion projects underway. Houston leads with 27 projects while Los Angeles and New York each have 22 projects. Chicago; Miami; Phoenix; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Dallas; Orlando; and Philadelphia all follow.
In the first quarter of 2021, the top 50 markets saw 128 hotels and 17,636 rooms open. LE is forecasting these same 50 markets to open another 367 hotels with 47,592 rooms over the next three quarters, for a total of 495 hotels with 65,228 rooms in 2021.