Greystar opened the doors of 25 North Lex in White Plains, its first residential development in New York, to its first move-ins. Located at 25 N. Lexington Ave., directly across from the White Plains Metro-North Train station, which recently underwent a $95-million renovation, 25 North Lex includes 500 luxury rental residences, nearly 60,000 square feet of amenities and approximately 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. 

“We’re thrilled to welcome the first residents to their new homes at 25 North Lex, where they’ll enjoy a simplified style of living accompanied by direct access to New York City and beyond through the adjacent Metro station,” said Gary Kerr, senior managing director of development at Greystar. “Greystar is especially excited by the integration of art within and around the 25 North Lex community. Along with these new apartments, the public art is bringing renewed vitality to downtown White Plains, making the area more attractive for those living, working and visiting the city.”

The 813,346-square-foot project features two intersecting towers of 16 and 25 stories rising from a four-story podium concealing a large, covered parking structure with bicycle storage. 

Following the highs seen during the COIV-19 era, domestic migration levels have begun to taper off, Placer.ai reports. The analytics firm notes that some sources put the number of Americans moving within the U.S. hitting an all-time low in 2023. 

“To be sure, some popular COVID-era destinations – including Idaho, the Carolinas, and Utah – saw their net domestic migration continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace,” according to a new Placer.ai white paper. “But other states which had been relocation hotspots between February 2020 and February 2023, such as Wyoming and Texas, experienced negative net migration between February 2023 and February 2024.” 

Titled Migration Hotspots in a Cool 2024 Market, the white paper leverages location intelligence to explore emerging domestic migration trends in early 2024. It delves into which metro areas are still attracting new residents and what’s drawing them to emerging hotspots. At the same time, it also examines which metros are seeing population outflows.

Pictured: Boulder, CO, currently the top location for inbound migration.

Courtesy of White Lodging

The Austin Marriott Downtown, which White Lodging opened in 2021.

White Lodging is moving forward with its plan to entirely offload its assets in suburban markets. The Indiana-based company, which owns, develops and manages hotels across the country, announced it closed on an agreement to sell 25 management contracts for suburban locations. 

The company also plans individual hotel sell-offs, but it did not provide details of those sales beyond noting that the transition would occur over multiple years. Jettisoning its suburban properties “focuses the company’s resources across a concentrated urban portfolio with more complex hotels that deliver memorable and elevated guest experiences,” according to a statement from White Lodging.

That portfolio includes hotels in Indianapolis, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Nashville and Charlotte.

“This strategic portfolio shift further defines our position in the industry and reinforces our focus on urban luxury and lifestyle hotels with independent destination restaurants,” White Lodging Chairman and founder Bruce White said in a statement.

Luxury hotels, while not seeing pre-pandemic occupancy rates, are receiving a boost in room rates, STR data comparing February 2019 and the same month in 2022 showed. While occupancy was almost 20% less than it was prior to the pandemic, rooms were charging an increase of almost 30% over pre-pandemic rates. 

White Lodging’s announcement emphasized that, moving forward, the bars and restaurants in the hotels will be a critical part of its targeted focus on urban markets. 

Hotels catering to domestic leisure clientele are doing well now, and that includes both urban leisure travelers and city dwellers looking for a place to have a good meal or drink, JLL Hotels and Hospitality Global CEO Gilda Perez-Alvarado told Bisnow in December. 

“A lot of these hotels have discovered that maybe they don’t need to rely on the guest who’s staying there overnight, they can rely on the resident or the neighbor who wants to go eat at the hotel or have a beverage at the hotel,” Perez-Alvarado said. “Hotels are being redefined finally as living places, not just staying places.” 

Last year, White Lodging opened four new urban hotels with nine food and beverage offerings in Charlotte, San Antonio and Austin.