Market Trends

🍸 Non-alcoholic spirits are increasingly prevalent on menus, rising by 487% over four years to feature on 2.8% of U.S. menus. Younger consumers often opt for these beverages to socialize without alcohol. Brands like Seedlip offer booze-less options that rival traditional spirits in complexity. The shift in perception from "mocktails" to standalone menu items caters to both drinkers and non-drinkers.

📌 Driftwood Capital announced the initial closing of its Driftwood Florida Space Coast Portfolio, LP for hotel assets in Florida's Space Coast. The fund consists of four beachfront properties, including brands like Marriott, Hilton, and IHG. Upon completion, these will represent 11% of all Space Coast hotel rooms and 62% of beachfront inventory. The portfolio will feature over 1,200 guestrooms, 166,000 square feet of meeting space, and 21 food and beverage outlets on 36 acres. The Space Coast expects 111 rocket launches in 2024, with projections of over 300 by 2028, increasing tourism and business travel. Driftwood has exceeded $1 billion in its hotel development pipeline, with $500 million worth of projects under construction or starting in 2024.

🏖️ Driftwood Capital's latest fund, Driftwood Florida Space Coast Portfolio, LP, has amassed $330 million, targeting hotel assets on Florida's Space Coast. The fund’s portfolio will control 11% of the region's guestrooms and 62% of beachfront hotel inventory with the opening of Westin Cocoa Beach resort. Their presence since 2013 has helped catalyze the area's growth. The portfolio includes Westin Cocoa Beach Resort (502 guestrooms), Hilton Cocoa Beach (295 guestrooms), Element by Westin Melbourne (130 guestrooms), and Crowne Plaza Melbourne (290 guestrooms), totaling over 1,200 rooms. Space Coast is witnessing increased demand, with 111 rocket launches anticipated this year, up from 72 last year, and a projection of more than 300 launches by 2028. Driftwood's development pipeline is valued at around $500 million, with projects under construction or breaking ground in 2023.

📈 Saladplate, Informa Markets' hospitality, food, and beverage hub, offers weekly news, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly e-magazine. It features a supplier directory with over 10,000 brands and updates on more than 35 international trade events.

🍽 Bret Thorn, Senior Food & Beverage Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality since 1999, hosts the podcast "In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn." He covered New York City's restaurant scene for The New York Sun from 2005-2008. In Thailand during 1992-1997, he contributed to Manager magazine and Asia Times. A Tufts University magna cum laude graduate and Phi Beta Kappa member, Thorn studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and in China at Nanjing and Beijing Universities, witnessing the 1989 Tiananmen Square events as an ABC News runner. His work earned the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award and he was president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council in 2005. Thorn was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014 and has written for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America and the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets.

🏢 UBS sold its 23-story, 920,000-square-foot office building at 135 West 50th Street in New York for a mere $8.5 million, a steep discount from its $332 million acquisition in 2006. The sale reflects a 97% value erosion, despite a $76-million renovation. The building is 35% occupied with design issues like low ceilings and awkwardly placed columns. UBS turned a profit selling the ground for $285 million in 2019 after buying it for $279 million in 2012. The ground lease expires in 2123 with 99 years of rent remaining.

🏠 Hilton announced the signing of the 225-room Hilton Frankfurt Gravenbruch, with an opening set for October 2024. Located within a 15-minute drive from Frankfurt's city center, main train station, and international airport. The location boasts a historical significance dating back to 1586. The property will undergo renovations, featuring 18 meeting spaces, two ballrooms, and leisure facilities including pools, saunas, and tennis courts. This will be Hilton's ninth hotel in Frankfurt.

🏠 Radisson Salt Lake City Downtown completed a multi-million dollar renovation including guestrooms, dining outlets, meeting spaces, and lobby upgrades, along with a new executive club lounge, ski closet, and coffee outlet (215 West). Located near the Delta Center and Salt Palace Convention Center, the hotel has over 15,000 square feet of event space. Decorated by Hale Collective, the 381-key hotel's refresh incorporates Scandinavian and local natural landscape influences. The next renovation phase, including pool area and coffee shop updates, is expected by early 2025.

📍 Noble House Hotels & Resorts expanded its portfolio with Snake River Sporting Club in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, increasing its North American holdings to 29 properties. The club offers various real estate options and amenities across nearly 1,000 acres, including a golf course and equestrian center. The Sylvan Lodge, a new full-service hotel featuring rooms, condos, a wellness center, and spa, is being developed on the property with furnishings from RH and local artisans. Noble House aims to enhance its presence in Wyoming and offer luxury outdoor health and wellness experiences.

🏡 Dezeen magazine showcases a selection of luxurious members' clubs from around the world. Highlighting venues such as Soho House São Paulo – the first South American Soho House in São Paulo's Italianate early 20th-century Cidade Matarazzo; George in London's Mayfair with its bronze dachshund and art-deco style bar; Annabel's in Mayfair with its "fantasy" ambiance, pink onyx basins, and one of London's first nightclubs; House of Koko, also in London, offering a "timeless" members' club with retro train carriage vinyl rooms; Soho House Mumbai in India, adorned with regional materials and textiles; Allbright London, a women-only club in Mayfair with art by female creatives; Làlia in Palma, Mallorca, with a jewel-toned palette inspired by local architecture; and Chief Los Angeles in the USA, a club for influential women in business set within a 1940s puppet theatre with interiors designed by AvroKO.