U.S. hotel construction pipeline continues its year-over-year growth

In its fall report, buoyed by a steady consumer-driven economy, analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) reported that the total U.S. construction pipeline stood at 5,704 projects/700,496 rooms, up 6% by projects and 8% by rooms year-over-year (YOY). Pipeline totals continue to climb closer to the all-time high of 5,883 projects/785,547 rooms reached in the second quarter of 2008, and are just 179 projects shy.

In its eighth consecutive quarter of growth, projects currently under construction stand at 1,729 projects/235,278 rooms, the highest count recorded since the second quarter of 2008. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, currently 44% of all pipeline projects, was 2,479 projects/286,125 rooms, very close to the all-time high set in 2009. It’s up a whopping 16% in projects and 13% in rooms, YOY. Projects in the early planning stage stand at 1,496 projects/179,093 rooms.

But as a result of declines in commercial investment brought about by the indecision caused by the global slowdown and the prolonged tariff imbroglio, this is the second quarter in a row where construction starts have declined, an indicator that pipelines growth may top out in late 2020/2021.

Through the end of the third quarter, 704 new hotels with 81,111 rooms opened across the U.S. with another 299 projects/33,059 rooms expected to open by year-end. New hotel openings in the LE forecast for 2020 stand at 1,112 new hotels/122,702 rooms followed by 1,126 new hotels/130,447 rooms scheduled to open in 2021.

This quarter is the first time this cycle where supply growth at 2% has risen and drawn even with demand growth which has fallen to 2%. In 2019, 16 of the top 25 markets show occupancy declines YOY while 11 markets show RevPAR declines.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.