City Grill

Tom Sykes

Principal

SOSH Architects

Atlantic City is in the midst of its seasonal boom in the hospitality market, according to Sykes, in preparation for the busy summertime, with hotel room and casino renovations as well as construction of new restaurants and single-family homes and multifamily residences at the shore.

“The hospitality market is quickly recovering from COVID-19 controls,” he says, and is “making up for the very difficult and slow previous 12 months.”

Shore residential construction projects have “passed all expectations,” and “existing homes and properties are being demolished daily to create new pads for new” projects, Sykes contends, adding that vacant land in the area “is almost non-existent.”

Sykes says project teams will face two particular challenges. First, architects and engineers are encountering particularly “restrictive schedules” while trying not to “compromise their creativity” and “control,” he notes.

And more than a year into the pandemic, Sykes says, “regardless of deadlines and openings,” construction teams “must always keep safety first.”