New York City hotels averaged an occupancy rate of 82% a week for roughly the first half of the year. That is on par with last year—and nearly 20 percentage points higher than the national rate. Revenue per available room is at $238.93 was well above the national average figure of $99.94.
Private Credit Growth
The private-credit business has grown fast in the past two decades, with capital raised for lending to private-equity-backed companies—the biggest part of the market—up more than 100-fold since 2006 to nearly $700 billion in 2024.
Fast Casual Rewards
Consumers may be pulling back on spending, but fast-casual chains have found at least one way to keep diners coming back: rewards programs. From Chipotle and Starbucks to Cava and Sweetgreen, restaurant brands are using loyalty programs to drive sales.
NYC Development
The Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund is teaming with Related Cos., which has said it is planning to build a 1,200-foot tower on a site one block from Central Park, which was purchased last year for more than $600 million. Related initially planned a mixed-use project there with residential, retail and a hotel. But more recently the firm said it has been considering an office building instead to take advantage of the strong demand among businesses for top-quality space in the city. The overall cost for the site and development is expected to be more than $1 billion.
Hyatt Playa KSL
Days after Hyatt Hotels Corp. completed the acquisition of Playa Hotels & Resorts, it announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell all of Playa’s owned real estate portfolio for $2 billion to Tortuga Resorts, which is a joint venture between an affiliate of KSL Capital Partners and Rodina. The portfolio includes 15 all-inclusive resorts across Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Cape Coral
Home prices for Cape Coral-Fort Myers have tumbled 11% in the two years through May, the most of any major metro area. The metro area of about 800,000 is feeling the effects of elevated home prices, ballooning insurance premiums and property taxes, natural disasters, a return to the office for remote workers, and waning demand from investors after a glut of building in the area brought rental prices down.
Affluent Sentiment
Only 26% of people in the top third of earners—households making about $130,000 or more—said in the three months ending in June that they were better off than a year ago, near the lowest level since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.
NYC Stabilized
The city’s most recent report about rent-stabilized units says landlords’ profit was up 12.1% between 2022 and 2023.
Private Investments
BlackRock plans to offer a 401(k) target-date fund with a 5% to 20% allocation to private investments, depending on an investor’s age. BlackRock estimates target-date funds with private investments could earn an extra 0.5% annually on average before fees.
LA Hotels
Hotel owners have to contend with what local Los Angeles union leaders say will be the highest minimum wage in the country. The city council voted last month to boost the wage for workers in hotels with 60 rooms or more. Hourly pay, currently $20.32, will increase every year until it reaches $30 in 2028.