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The Hospitality Markets Nobody Is Talking About, But Should Be

By LRE Companies,July 9, 2026June 23, 2026

For years, hospitality investment has been dominated by a familiar list of markets. New York. Los Angeles. Miami. Nashville. Austin. Las Vegas.

These destinations continue to attract travelers, investors, and developers, but they are increasingly competitive, expensive, and saturated.

The next wave of hospitality opportunities is emerging elsewhere.

Across the country, a growing number of secondary and tertiary markets are quietly outperforming expectations as travelers seek authentic experiences, businesses expand into new regions, and local economies diversify. While major cities continue to receive most of the attention, some of the strongest long-term hospitality opportunities may be found in places that rarely make national headlines.

For developers and investors willing to look beyond traditional gateway cities, the opportunity is significant.

The Shift Away from Traditional Hospitality Hubs

The hospitality industry has undergone a major transformation over the past several years. Travelers increasingly prioritize experiences over destinations. Remote work has expanded travel flexibility. Population growth has accelerated across many secondary markets, particularly throughout the Sun Belt.

At the same time, rising land costs, labor challenges, and development expenses in major metropolitan areas have made secondary markets increasingly attractive to investors.

According to PwC’s 2026 hospitality outlook, leisure travel demand is increasingly concentrated in warmer-weather and secondary markets, with demand growth expected to outpace new supply growth in the lodging sector. RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room), one of hospitality’s key performance indicators, is projected to grow 2.9% in 2026 as demand continues to broaden beyond traditional urban centers.

The trend is clear: travelers are expanding their horizons, and developers should be doing the same.

The Rise of Lifestyle Destinations

One of the most overlooked opportunities today is the growth of smaller, lifestyle-oriented destinations. These are not necessarily major tourism hubs. Instead, they are communities with strong local identity, outdoor recreation, walkable downtowns, culinary scenes, wineries, cultural attractions, or unique natural assets.

Travelers increasingly want authentic experiences rather than manufactured ones. They are seeking places that offer character, connection, and a sense of discovery.

This shift has fueled demand for boutique hotels and experience-driven hospitality concepts. The global boutique hotel market reached approximately $28.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to exceed $50 billion by 2033. Leisure travelers account for more than 70% of boutique hotel demand, reflecting a growing preference for unique accommodations over standardized lodging. For developers, this creates opportunities in markets that may have previously been overlooked by institutional capital.

Secondary Markets Are Becoming Primary Opportunities

Population migration patterns are creating entirely new hospitality demand centers. Cities across Texas, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Tennessee, Arizona, and the Carolinas have seen significant population growth over the past decade. Businesses have followed. So have conferences, sporting events, healthcare investments, and tourism infrastructure.

As a result, many secondary markets now support hospitality demand levels that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago.

Industry observers note that investors are increasingly targeting secondary and tertiary markets because of population growth, economic diversification, and lower barriers to entry than in primary gateway cities. These markets often offer stronger development economics and greater upside potential for long-term investors.

The opportunity is not simply building hotels where people live.

It is creating destinations where people want to stay.

Convention and Event Markets Are Quietly Winning

Another underappreciated hospitality segment is the emerging convention and events markets.

While major convention cities remain important, a growing number of mid-sized markets are successfully attracting meetings, conferences, sporting events, and regional gatherings.

These events create year-round occupancy drivers that help reduce seasonality and stabilize hotel performance.

Recent industry data highlight strong convention-driven hospitality growth in markets such as Louisville and St. Louis, where meeting and event activity has significantly boosted hotel demand and occupancy. In downtown St. Louis, occupancy increased by more than 8% year-over-year, while RevPAR grew by more than 9%, outperforming national trends.

Developers who understand the relationship between event infrastructure and hospitality demand may find opportunities where others see only secondary cities.

Outdoor Recreation and Wellness Destinations

One of the strongest trends shaping hospitality today is the convergence of wellness, recreation, and travel.

Travelers increasingly prioritize outdoor experiences, wellness-focused getaways, and destinations that offer meaningful escapes from urban environments.

This trend is creating opportunities across mountain communities, lake destinations, wine regions, coastal towns, and outdoor recreation hubs.

Luxury hospitality brands are investing heavily in wellness-oriented experiences, while boutique operators continue to capitalize on travelers seeking immersive, personalized stays. Industry research shows that experiential travel and wellness-focused hospitality remain among the sector’s fastest-growing segments.

For developers, this often means looking beyond traditional tourism metrics and focusing on lifestyle demand drivers.

Why Timing Matters

Perhaps the biggest reason these markets deserve attention is timing.

Competition remains significantly lower than in major hospitality hubs. Land costs are often more manageable, and development pipelines are less crowded. Local governments are frequently more supportive of investment and economic development initiatives.

Meanwhile, hotel investment activity continues to strengthen. U.S. hotel transaction volume reached approximately $24 billion in 2025, a 17.5% increase year-over-year, as investors returned to the hospitality sector.

The window to establish a presence in many emerging hospitality markets may not remain open indefinitely.

Looking Ahead

The future of hospitality development will not be defined solely by the largest cities.

It will be shaped by communities that offer authenticity, lifestyle appeal, economic growth, and unique experiences travelers can’t find elsewhere.

The markets attracting the most attention today may not necessarily offer the best opportunities tomorrow.

For developers willing to think differently, some of the most compelling hospitality investments may be hiding in plain sight.

The smartest hospitality strategy isn’t always to follow the crowd.

Sometimes it’s finding the markets nobody is talking about—before everyone else starts talking about them.

LRE & Co. | Commercial Real Estate Management and Development

News & Blog

Looking for a Development Partner in the West?

By LRE Companies,July 2, 2026June 29, 2026

The western United States is one of the most dynamic real estate development environments in the country. Population growth, infrastructure investment, and shifting tenant demand are reshaping markets from the Wasatch Front to the Inland Empire. For capital partners and landowners entering these markets, choosing the right development partner is one of the most consequential decisions in the deal stack.

Unlike markets in the Northeast or Southeast, the West carries a distinct set of development risks: long entitlement timelines, politically active communities, constrained infrastructure capacity, and rapid cost escalation. A development partner who performs well in Dallas or Atlanta may be entirely unprepared for what a high-growth municipality in Utah or Arizona demands. Here’s what to evaluate before committing to a relationship.

Why Western Markets Require a Different Playbook

Western real estate markets have consistently outperformed national benchmarks. Utah’s population grew by 18.4% between 2010 and 2020, making it the fastest-growing state in the country, according to U.S. Census data. The greater Phoenix metro added more than 90,000 residents in a single year, and the Boise metro has ranked among the top 10 fastest-growing metros nationally for multiple consecutive years.

Commercial real estate has followed the population. CBRE reports that the Mountain West region saw industrial vacancy rates fall below 4% in 2023, and retail vacancy in high-growth suburban corridors has reached historic lows. JLL data indicates that net absorption of retail space in the Intermountain West has been positive for 12 consecutive quarters.

What this means practically: development in the West is competitive, entitlement timelines are long, and community relationships directly affect project outcomes. Developers who treat these markets as transactional opportunities consistently underperform against those who invest in genuine local presence.

The Three Phases Where Partner Quality Gets Tested

Most development partnerships are evaluated at the wrong moment, during a pitch, when every firm presents its best projects and smoothest execution. A more reliable test is to ask how a partner performs across three phases where the real work happens: pre-development underwriting, entitlement navigation, and execution through lease-up. The quality of each phase compounds into the final project outcome.

The strongest western-focused developers share a common trait: they maintain internal teams with sustained local knowledge rather than rotating generalist consultants across markets. Depth of local presence, measured in years of municipal relationships, not just closed deals, is one of the strongest predictors of entitlement success in the West.

Phase One: Market Intelligence and Site Selection

Rigorous pre-development underwriting is the first place to differentiate serious Western developers from opportunistic ones. The evaluation process should cover trade-area demographics, traffic counts, competitive supply pipelines, and tenant demand signals, all before a site goes under contract. This discipline matters more than ever as costs have surged: according to the Associated General Contractors of America, construction input costs rose by more than 41% between 2020 and 2023, making accurate underwriting a prerequisite for project viability rather than a formality.

For capital partners and institutional co-investors, the benchmark to set is simple: every site decision should be documented with supporting data on absorption trends, population growth, employment density, and comparable project performance. If a development partner cannot produce that framework on demand, it signals how decisions are made throughout the project lifecycle.

Phase Two: Entitlements and Community Partnership

Entitlement risk is one of the most underappreciated variables in Western development. In high-growth markets, planning departments are often understaffed relative to the volume of applications, and community opposition can delay or derail projects that aren’t carefully positioned. The National Association of Realtors estimates that entitlement delays add an average of 14 months to residential project timelines; commercial timelines face similar headwinds.

The development partners who consistently shorten entitlement timelines in the West share one practice: they engage municipalities early, well before formal application, presenting projects as community assets rather than external impositions. Public-private dialogue built into the process from the outset does not guarantee frictionless approvals, but it meaningfully reduces timeline variability and builds the kind of goodwill that translates into long-term market access.

When evaluating a partner’s entitlement track record, ask specifically about contested approvals, not just clean ones. The willingness to show how a firm navigated community opposition, adjusted design, or worked through planning department delays reveals far more than a highlight reel of quick approvals.

Phase Three: Execution and Lease-Up

Execution quality in Western development comes down to two things: delivering on time and on budget, and leasing the project efficiently. On the leasing side, the key question is whether a development partner has active tenant relationships in place before delivery or plans to build them after the ribbon-cutting. In markets where retail vacancy in premium western corridors is running below 5% per CBRE benchmarks, well-located product leases quickly, but the relationships to place tenants efficiently are built over years, not during lease-up.

For capital partners, the reporting standard to expect is straightforward: regular construction milestone updates, early-stage leasing progress, and no surprises buried in quarterly reports. Transparency from groundbreaking through stabilization is not a courtesy; it is a structural requirement for any well-run development relationship.

Who Should Be Evaluating a Western Development Partner

The investor profiles most active in western development partnerships tend to fall into a few categories: institutional capital partners and family offices seeking direct exposure to western commercial real estate without building internal development infrastructure, and landowners or municipalities seeking a capable private-sector partner for sites with complex entitlements or phased development challenges. Each brings different priorities to the relationship, but all share the same fundamental need: a partner with demonstrable local knowledge and a full-lifecycle track record.

The right fit for a western development partnership is a capital partner or landowner who values transparency, takes a long-term view of market positioning, and understands that community relationships are structural — not soft — variables that affect project returns. Firms that treat entitlement goodwill as optional tend to discover its value only after a project stalls.

The Bottom Line

Western real estate is not a market for generalists. Population growth is real, tenant demand is strong, and the development pipeline in high-quality submarkets is constrained by entitlement complexity rather than a lack of capital. What separates successful projects from stalled ones is execution quality and community credibility.

When evaluating partners for a Western project, the question is not just who can raise capital or close a site. The question is who can deliver across all three phases, underwriting, entitlements, and execution, in markets that demand genuine local credibility. That combination is rarer than it appears on most pitch decks.

Community

From Silicon Slopes to Salad Bowls: How Utah’s Tech Boom Is Reshaping the Fast-Casual Market

By LRE Companies,June 4, 2026May 28, 2026

There’s a quiet revolution unfolding along the Wasatch Front, and it goes well beyond code and capital. Utah, long known for its outdoor recreation, strong family culture, and homegrown work ethic, has spent the past decade building one of the most impressive technology ecosystems in the United States. The region stretching from Salt Lake City to Provo has earned the nickname that stuck: Silicon Slopes.

But what happens to a food market when a state rapidly fills with highly educated, health-conscious, digitally native workers earning above-average salaries? It upgrades fast.

The fast-casual restaurant sector in Utah is being fundamentally transformed by the same demographic wave that is fueling its tech economy. For investors, developers, and restaurateurs who are paying attention, the opportunity is significant.

Silicon Slopes by the Numbers

To understand the food story, you first need to appreciate the scale of Utah’s tech transformation. The state led the nation in 2024 with a 4.5% real GDP growth rate, more than double the national average of 2.8%, and its nominal GDP surpassed $300 billion for the first time. Utah’s tech sector alone contributes nearly 10% of state GDP and, within the Salt Lake metro area, employs 34% more tech professionals per capita than the national average. The state is projected to add more than 50,000 new tech jobs by 2026. Companies such as Qualtrics, Domo, Pluralsight, and Ancestry are headquartered here. Adobe, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs have established major operations along the corridor, and Adobe alone employs 2,000 people in Lehi, with room to grow to 3,000.

The result is a workforce that skews young, educated, and increasingly affluent. Utah’s median age is just 32 years, the youngest of any U.S. state, and the population surpassed 3.5 million in 2024, adding over 50,000 new residents in a single year. The region’s under-35 population, a demographic that drives disproportionate restaurant spending, is growing faster than in nearly any comparable metro in the West. Median tech wages in Utah sit at $77,492, roughly 82% above the state’s median across all occupations, giving this workforce substantial spending power.

These workers eat out often. They care deeply about sourcing ingredients. They expect digital convenience. And they’re more than willing to spend $14 on a grain bowl if the brand aligns with their values.

Fast casual, that sweet spot between fast-food efficiency and sit-down quality, is built for exactly this consumer.

The Salad Bowl Economy

Walk into any office park in Lehi, Draper, or downtown Salt Lake City around noon, and you’ll notice something. The lunch crowd isn’t heading to burger chains. Instead, they’re lining up at fast-casual concepts centered on clean proteins, global flavors, customizable bowls, and transparent supply chains.

Utah has seen explosive growth in fast-casual brands that cater precisely to this appetite. Local concepts such as Swig, Cubby’s, and Guru’s Cafe have built cult-like followings by understanding their market intimately. National players, including Cava, Sweetgreen, and Mendocino Farms, have identified Utah as a high-priority expansion market, and for good reason.

The demographics virtually guarantee success for well-executed concepts. Nationally, the U.S. fast-casual market reached approximately $48.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to nearly double to $90 billion by 2035, growing at a 6.4% CAGR. Over 63% of millennials and Gen Z consumers prefer customizable meals, and 76% of urban consumers now prefer healthier quick-service options over traditional fast food. Utah’s young, health-oriented population, with disposable income and a strong preference for experiences over things, is the archetypal fast-casual customer. Add Utah’s notably high birth rate and family-centric culture, and you have a market that values speed and quality simultaneously, exactly what fast casual delivers.

Digital Demand Is Reshaping the Physical Footprint

Tech workers don’t just change what they eat; they change how restaurants must operate. Utah’s tech-savvy consumer base has accelerated the adoption of digital ordering more than in many comparable markets. Nationally, over 68% of fast-casual transactions were initiated through online or mobile platforms as of mid-2024, with third-party delivery accounting for 49% of all orders. Mobile-first loyalty programs, third-party delivery integration, and app-based customization aren’t optional extras here; they’re table stakes.

This is directly affecting real estate. Fast-casual operators expanding into Utah are rethinking their physical footprints from the ground up. Smaller dining rooms. Dedicated pickup lanes and digital order staging areas. Ghost kitchen integrations in urban cores. Drive-thru models adapted for premium concepts that would once have been considered beneath their brand.

For commercial real estate professionals and investors, this evolution matters. The fast-casual properties being built and leased in Utah today look different from those of ten years ago, and they’re being underwritten differently as well.

What This Means for Real Estate

The intersection of tech-driven demographic growth and fast-casual expansion is creating real opportunity in Utah’s commercial property market. Utah’s economy is projected to add 330,000 jobs by 2033, a 13.4% increase, with Professional and Technical Services leading the way. Households are forecast to grow 2.4% annually, from 1.2 million to over 1.4 million by 2033. Retail corridors in Lehi, South Jordan, and Sugar House are seeing heightened demand from restaurant tenants, and landlords with well-located pads and end caps are in strong negotiating positions.

Fast-casual tenants, particularly those with national brand recognition and strong unit-level economics, are increasingly attractive to net lease investors for the same reasons QSR assets have long been favored: long lease terms, minimal landlord responsibilities, and creditworthy operators. As the fast-casual asset class matures, Utah is poised to be one of the country’s most compelling proving grounds.

The Bigger Picture

Utah’s story is ultimately about alignment. A state that attracts ambitious, health-conscious, digitally fluent workers naturally cultivates a food culture that mirrors those values. Silicon Slopes didn’t just build a tech hub; it created the conditions for a fast-casual renaissance.

For brands with the right concept and investors with the vision to follow demographic data, the path from Silicon Slopes to salad bowls isn’t a detour. It’s the whole point.