Mixed-use property developers must have the patience and vision to look 20 years ahead if they are to make a success of their latest projects.
Speaking at the 2025 R&R Hospitality Forum in Athens, Greece, LAMDA Development chief commercial officer Alexandros Moulas said any mixed-use development depends on the community it attracts in order to be successful.
He added that this is not achieved overnight but instead developers must be prepared to wait for decades in order to see the project successfully completed.
Moulas said: “Because we talk about mixed use, in some cases large-scale mixed use, creating a community by definition requires time to mature, right? So, it's not a five-year play.
“It takes time. So, unless as a developer you have the pockets, vision, but also the patience to wait for 10, 15, 20 years to set up the community, it's not going to work.”
Natural evolution
WATG global practice principal Ashley Scott agreed that any development will naturally evolve to meet clients’ tastes as they change over the years in often unforeseen ways.
He said: “When you're doing your master planning, for example, how do you know who your user is going to be in 10 years' time? Well, you sometimes don't really know. You're never going to know.
“You can speak with the economists and the advisory teams and they'll tell you what the market may be now and predict what the market may be in the future.
“But what we tend to do from a master planning perspective is designing flexibility and adaptability.”
Scott added one of the most effective ways of achieving this is through phasing a development, with the first phase focused on showcasing what your plan for the community is and then reacting according to market demand.
He added: “The second phase that we originally planned, we're now replanning to address what the market is absorbing. So, it's a constant evolution as time goes on.”
Sotogrande chief investment officer Arturo Rueda added while it is important to evolve according to market demand, this should not come at the price of losing the original vision for the development.
He said: “We need coherence across the resort and across the years. We need to have an active role as a custodian of the resort just to maintain the identity, even if we evolve it, we need to maintain it for the residents that we have and for the future residents.”
ESG rules
Nor is every change driven by consumer demand Accor regional vice president for luxury development Paul Rosenberg said, citing increased demands from both government and business for developers to incorporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in their projects.
He added: “ESG is really at the centre of what we do, not just on the programming, but also on the design and the construction of our hotels and we've seen the benefits for the owner.
“There are owners that do not look primarily at the financial benefits, but of course, it helps the case study. And so we've seen owners that have been able to get better financing as a result.
“There's a lot of attractive green financing today, and also an ability to sell the hotel or transfer the hotel later at a premium as a result of that. So we're really seeing ESG being beneficial for all the parties involved.”
Effective ESG also translates into guest satisfaction Scott said, giving the example of a resort in the Philippines where local farmers provide much of the food, host on-site food markets and even influence the menu.
He added: “That allows for the community engagement with the guest and an authentic sort of guest experience while they are at the resort.”
Driving new revenues
Scott said this holistic approach to development can also help owners uncover new revenue streams, especially as guests are increasingly focused on wellness when on holiday, meaning the spa – and the various additional treatments that can be purchased there – is central customer requirements.
He added: “If you're developing a project or a resort and you put landscape in there, that landscape is going to cost you money and you're not getting anything back from it.
“If you're monetising that landscape, so you're creating those wellness experiences, you can monetise the landscape.
“That way, when you're going to the spa, the spa operator can curate different experiences for you and charge you for it. And that's one way of sort of monetising the capital cost of building that design.”
Rosenberg agreed that wellness has become such a vital part of many people’s holidays that the planning to incorporate it into the development is one of the first considerations.
He said: “It first starts with the destination and the location. We're starting to see more and more demand for off-the-beaten-track hotels, resorts.”
Once the location has been agreed the design of the development must then ensure appropriate facilities are planned in before finally having a programme of events focused on wellness once the scheme is up and running.
Just as guests on holiday like to nurture themselves, Rosenberg added it is vital to nurture the overall community in any development, particularly as their use of it evolves.
He said: “We invest a lot, even if not always looking for profitability, but to reinforce the community. And therefore, what we measure is the guest, the resident satisfaction with the life in the community.
“Another very important metric that we also measure is the usability because we are seeing a shift from temporary residents to permanent residents, and sometimes something that is in the middle, you don't know exactly if they are temporary or permanent, but that shift is also very important for us.”