By Ashley Scott, Global Practice Principal for Planning + Landscape at WATG, and Dan Hinch, Managing Principal, Planning + Landscape EMEA.
In today’s rapidly evolving urban landscapes, hospitality-led mixed-use developments have become the new face of placemaking. Bringing together living, leisure, and lifestyle, these developments have seen our role as master planners evolve – to not just defining the physical blueprint of these destinations, but in forming conditions that then allow new communities to thrive and businesses to flourish.
How do we define success?
Success in a mixed-use development is often measured in numbers; sales figures, occupancy rates, or return on investment. While these are useful, tangible indicators, they are only part of the story. The true measure of performance lies deeper: in how residents, guests, and end-users feel about the places we create.
At its core, the ambition of a hospitality-led mixed-use project is the creation of community – forging a sense of belonging that draws people together. From the perspective of a master planner, a development “performs” when it fosters connection, supports wellbeing, and generates a positive impact that extends beyond its boundaries.
At WATG, our planning team often works closely with our advisory team to identify the key components that make up a master plan and where they should be positioned. We usually look at the environmental assets of a site in the first instance – how we can enhance them and where we can position them for maximum success. This also requires a good understanding of the operational requirements and how the operator plans to look after the asset efficiently.
Getting the mix of uses right
Every hospitality-driven mixed-use project presents a unique convergence of challenges – from scale to location to phasing. These developments often sit at the intersection of tourism and residential living, where visitor expectations must correspond with community needs.
This is where the strength of the master plan lies: in creating trust between client and design team and ensuring the data and the design match up. Understanding the land – its character, topography, and constraints – early on enables us to align the vision more accurately. Through close collaboration with our advisory team and rigorous test-fitting, we can shape the right mix of uses to deliver a robust, long-term experience.
The most successful mixed-use destinations achieve a delicate balance between typologies: hotel, residential, retail, and public spaces. This blend should feel effortless, but it does require a proper in-depth analysis and understanding of the place to get it right. Each site is unique, influenced by its geography, culture, and climate. As is reflective of the WATG approach to all our work, no two projects should be handled the same way.
The ability to tailor the mix is not simply about design; it’s about storytelling. It’s about orchestrating a sequence of experiences that feels natural – from the first arrival to the daily rituals of residents and the flow of visitors.
For example, when we develop mixed-use golf communities or destinations, the master plan often includes a combination of branded residential areas, hospitality, country clubs, additional golf facilities, and amenities such as tennis, racquetball, and pickleball courts. This mix works well because all of these activities complement one another and create a cohesive, integrated experience.
It’s also important that we’re designing in flexible space, which can allow for future reprogramming – in some cases, for things that might not even exist yet. For instance, 20 years ago we never had Pickleball or Padel courts, we only had tennis courts. We’re now seeing tennis courts being converted, so it’s important that we can factor in that flexibility and adaptability for when something inevitably changes. Developments can take years, or even decades to evolve, so you need to futureproof them to allow for those amenities to occur in the future.
Connecting a new destination to its local context
At WATG, we’ve had the privilege of designing and planning hospitality-led developments around the world. One of the most powerful insights we’ve gained is the importance of connecting new destinations to their cultural and environmental context. We must think of the local and cultural nuances when creating a new place – or else the result is something inconsiderate and inauthentic.
“Placemaking” is often used to describe this process, but the essence lies in understanding how people and how communities have evolved and how they want to interact with their surroundings. Successful developments don’t impose a global aesthetic; they translate global best practice into a local language. When done well, the outcome feels genuine and long-lasting.
Present and future trends
In terms of recent leading trends, wellness has become a defining feature of contemporary master planning. Today’s developments are expected to support not just the physical health of residents, but their mental and emotional wellbeing.
Wellness has been an important concept for hundreds of years, but we're seeing more and more demand for it. Today we’re finding that people are more interested in natural healing, mindfulness, Ayurvedic experiences (which is using gardens of medicinal plants with medicinal properties and teaching people about how to create lotions and or teas and preparations that have healing properties.)
Equally, these wellness experiences are much more curated now.
Previously, the spa might be the focal point, with some design elements around it – but now, we’re seeing more of a focus on what is going on around the spa, and how can we design in healing, regenerative types of landscape experiences. For example, can we include a chromatherapy garden (the art of using color to affect the chakras of the body) or an aromatherapy garden. These too, are not new concepts, but we’re finding this wellness teaching being embedded into the resorts, rather than just into a singular treatment or touchpoint.
From an operator perspective, there is an added commercial benefit as you’re essentially able to monetize your landscape – by creating these wellness experiences, it adds capital to these outdoor spaces.
Sustainability also remains both a pivotal aspect and a challenge in hospitality-led mixed-use planning. Integrating different property types, each with its own operational and environmental demands, requires a holistic, systems-based approach.
The good news is that advances in technology are allowing planners to be far more precise. From climatic modelling to solar orientation and wind analysis, we can now design with deeper environmental intelligence. These tools help us not only to minimize impact but also to optimize the comfort and liveability of the development for generations to come.
Lastly, people always value authenticity. As such, we always prefer to follow the natural landscape where possible – for example, if an area has a local agricultural aspect, we want to try and incorporate this or encourage the client to engage with the local community to make the most of this as part of the master plan development.
We find also that a lot of people want to know exactly where their food comes from, so we often try to engage with local farmers, pairing them up with a resort operator, and even seeing if there is space or the opportunity to host local produce markets. This allows for community engagement with visitors, and an authentic guest experience at the resort.
Creating destinations to return to
Ultimately, the success of a hospitality-led mixed-use development is not defined by a single factor, but by the harmony of many. It’s about crafting environments where people want to stay, invest, and return (repeatedly).
As master planners, our task is to choreograph this complexity and to envision not just a development, but a living ecosystem. When that ecosystem performs, it doesn’t just succeed economically; it enriches the lives of all who experience it.
The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.