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REPORT FROM THE U.S.—New hotel construction in the United States has been muted since the economic recession took hold in 2008. But the number of projects in the pipeline is starting to pick up, and there are some outstanding assets either under construction or near groundbreaking that are expected to make a splash when they open.
A number of projects that made it out of the ground during the past few years are attached to a casino. Jan Freitag, senior VP of global development at STR, said that is typical during a “time of fiscal constraint.” STR is the parent company of HotelNewsNow.com.
“Without as much income from traditional sales tax or property taxes, municipalities have to find new ways to fund the budget,” he said. “Gaming is a perceived easy opportunity. And then with those casinos normally comes the idea of a hotel.”
The largest hotel under construction today is the 1,012-room JW Marriott Austin, followed by the 800-room Omni Nashville Hotel. Freitag said both projects represent logical extensions of cities trying to grow.
“Secondary and tertiary markets are now viable convention center options,” Freitag said. “The question is how will those hotels impact the market when the convention center is not busy—not if they will have an impact, but how, because they will.
HotelNewsNow.com took a peek at the most noteworthy hotels in the U.S. pipeline, specifically those valued at $40 million and more.
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