WITH 67 PROJECTS and 7,772 rooms in its construction pipeline, Charlotte, North Carolina, ranks 15th among the top 25 U.S. markets by project count, according to Lodging Econometrics. LE predicts continued growth in the city’s future.
Hotels under construction in the city total 11 projects and 1,435 rooms at the end of the first quarter, with 31 projects and 3,466 rooms set to begin construction in the next 12 months, and 25 projects totaling 2,871 rooms in early planning.
LE’s first quarter hotel development data for Charlotte, released ahead of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference, showed that more than 65 percent of the projects are upscale and upper-midscale brands, totaling 44 projects and 5,007 rooms combined.
Three key market tracts (submarkets) in Charlotte—Monroe and Rock Hill with 14 projects totaling 1,458 rooms, Concord and Salisbury with 11 projects totaling 897 rooms, and the Charlotte central business district with nine projects totaling 1,643 rooms—account for approximately 51 percent of the projects and rooms in Charlotte’s total construction pipeline as of the first quarter, according to the LE report.
Meanwhile, Charlotte ranks ninth in the U.S. by project volume for conversion activity, with a total of 17 projects and 1,758 rooms through renovation and conversion.
Looking ahead, LE forecasts five projects totaling 511 rooms for new hotel openings in the Charlotte market in 2024, representing a 1.2 percent growth in room supply. In 2025, Charlotte is expected to grow its supply by 1.5 percent, with six new hotels totaling 652 rooms projected to open.
LE recently reported that the U.S. leads the global full-service hotel pipeline with 2,272 projects and 341,854 rooms in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for 41 percent of the global total.
