Daily News 8-17-2026

Despite several unexpected industry setbacks this year, sentiment at last week’s 18th Hotel Data Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, was largely upbeat, as solid performance during the first half of the year drove industry forecasts upward for the remainder of 2026. The overarching theme of the conference was clear: Travel demand remains far more resilient than what the broader macroeconomic narrative would suggest. The hospitality industry has faced several hurdles, including…»

The temperature was already 105 at 11:30 a.m. when Kyle Waage waited in line outside a Salad and Go in Mesa to get his final meal from his favorite restaurant. Waage was one of more than a dozen people trying to find shade around the pick-up window at the Alma School Road and Southern Avenue location of the Arizona restaurant chain that scorching hot day on August 5. At the same time, more than 20 cars were in a line that snaked through the shopping center’s parking lot as…»

As Downtown Phoenix continues to emerge as one of the country’s most dynamic urban business centers, LaPour is advancing plans for a proposed JW Marriott Downtown Phoenix, a transformative adaptive reuse office to hotel conversion to address the demand for new, upscale and luxury hotel options. The proposed development would convert a 19-story office tower at Arizona Center into a 340-room JW Marriott, featuring a resort style inground swimming pool overlooking…»

Across the U.S., Millennials have gone from renters to owners at a remarkable pace — only 5 metros had a Millennial homeowner majority in 2018; by 2023, that number had grown to 82. In the West, most large metros remain firmly renter-majority — but Phoenix stands out as the region’s leading large metro to flip, and one that did it while rentership was also declining at the same time. Millennial homeownership in Phoenix reached 54.5%, with 289,450 Millennial homeowners…»

Commercial real estate has so far absorbed another rise in Treasury yields without the broad repricing that investors might have expected. That resilience, however, should not be mistaken for a return to normal. CBRE’s first-half cap rate survey shows a market in which average pricing is holding up, while confidence in where values will go next is becoming increasingly fragmented. The all-property average cap rate was essentially unchanged during the first half even as the 10-year…»