For years, office and hotel developments competed primarily on location, scale and amenity offerings. Today, the most successful projects—particularly those housed in historic or mixed-use buildings—are less differentiated by what they contain and more by how they operate. Experience has become the defining currency, and hospitality owners and operators are increasingly leading this evolution.
Historic and mixed-use assets bring inherent complexity: layered uses, legacy architecture, regulatory constraints and diverse user groups. Yet these very characteristics create opportunity. When approached with a hospitality mindset, such buildings can deliver richer, more authentic experiences than ground-up, single-use projects. The most compelling developments treat these assets not as static real estate, but as dynamic operating platforms that must be curated, programmed and continuously refined.
What is emerging is a clear performance gap between projects that view experience as an add-on and those that integrate it into the core of development and operations from the outset.
Defining a World-Class Experience
When industry leaders discuss what constitutes a world-class guest or workplace experience today, there is notable alignment. Non-negotiables include intuitive navigation, consistency of service and environments that feel intentional rather than overdesigned. In historic or mixed-use buildings, clarity is especially critical. Guests and occupants must understand where they are, where they are going and how spaces relate to one another.
Technology plays a supporting role. Smart access systems, digital concierge tools and behind-the-scenes building intelligence can help reconcile old infrastructure with modern expectations. However, as in hospitality more broadly, technology is most effective when it enhances human service rather than replacing it. In complex buildings, seamless coordination often matters more than novelty.
From Amenities to Membership
A defining characteristic of successful mixed-use and historic developments is a shift away from amenity accumulation toward service-driven environments. Whether the primary use is hotel, office or a combination of both, the most effective projects treat users as members of a community rather than transient occupants.
This service-forward approach has tangible benefits. Developments that invest in hospitality-trained staff, flexible service models and operational consistency see higher retention, stronger brand affinity, and increased demand across uses. Importantly, experience must be designed to flex throughout the day, accommodating hotel guests, office users, visitors and the surrounding neighborhood.
Where some projects fall short is in over-investing in physical buildouts without a parallel investment in operations. In legacy buildings especially, experience lives less in new finishes and more in how spaces are staffed, programmed and activated.
Architectural Constraints
Historic and adaptive reuse projects require a different design lens. Rather than imposing uniformity, successful developments embrace architectural idiosyncrasies and use them to shape the guest journey. Scale, materiality and history become part of the narrative.
Designing an elevated experience in these environments is about sequencing—how guests arrive, move through shared spaces and encounter moments of pause or interaction. Hospitality-led developments excel when they treat circulation, transitions and shared areas as experiential assets rather than residual space.
This approach underscores a key distinction: amenities are static, but experience is operational. In mixed-use buildings, experience must be carefully choreographed across programs and uses, often requiring close collaboration between designers, operators and owners.
Retail and F&B as Experience Anchors
In historic and mixed-use developments, food and beverage, wellness and boutique retail often serve as connective tissue between uses. These elements do more than provide convenience; they establish rhythm, identity and energy.
A well-curated retail and F&B mix can anchor development, attracting both internal users and the surrounding community. Hospitality owners understand that partner selection is not simply a leasing decision but an experiential one. The most successful projects curate operators whose concepts align with the building’s story and audience.
Retail in these settings functions as experience infrastructure, supporting social interaction and reinforcing a sense of place throughout the day and evening.
Collaboration as a Development Imperative
Delivering cohesive experiences in historic and mixed-use buildings requires deep collaboration. Owners, hotel operators, retail partners, designers and asset managers must align early around shared goals. Where collaboration breaks down, it is often due to siloed decision-making or misaligned incentives between development and operations.
Increasingly, successful projects are led by teams that blur traditional boundaries. Hospitality operators contribute to early design decisions, while owners adopt more flexible deal structures that allow experience-driven uses to evolve over time. In complex buildings, collaboration is not optional—it is foundational.
Activation and Adaptability Over Time
Activation in mixed-use and historic developments must be intentional and adaptive. Rather than relying on one-time events, leading projects implement programming strategies that respond to how spaces are actually used. This may include rotating cultural programming, seasonal food concepts or flexible service offerings that evolve alongside demand.
Guest expectations continue to rise. Users now expect environments to feel alive, responsive and authentic. In legacy buildings, adaptability is often the key to long-term relevance.
Looking Ahead
As hospitality continues to influence how mixed-use and historic buildings are developed and operated, the line between real estate and experience will continue to blur. The most successful projects will be those that combine respect for history with operational creativity, leveraging service culture, thoughtful programming and flexible structures.
For hotel owners and hospitality-led developers, historic and mixed-use assets represent a powerful opportunity. When experience is embedded into both development strategy and daily operations, these buildings can outperform not despite their complexity, but because of it.
Nina M. Roket is the co-managing partner and co-chair of the Real Estate Law Practice and chair of the commercial leasing Practice at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP.