by Will Odwarka, CEO Heartatwork
Have you been to Dubai recently? Checked out bathrooms in shopping malls, service desks or Mall- or property services for customers and tenants. Everything is now part of a curated experience. Nothing about this is new. The term “Experience economy” has not been created by a GenZ influencer; it has been popularized by Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in the late 1990s, describing a progression beyond the agrarian, industrial, and service economies, where businesses orchestrate events that engage customers on emotional, physical, intellectual, or even spiritual levels, making memory itself the product.
Now landlords and developers love to talk about “activation,” but the truth is uglier: in the experience economy, cafes, bakeries, and restaurants aren’t tenants anymore — they’re infrastructure.
Hospitality is the new infrastructure
We’ve moved past selling coffee and croissants. Those are commodities now. Most cities have good espresso, decent sourdough, and perfectly fine pasta everywhere. What people actually buy is the feeling: belonging, ritual, identity, a moment worth photographing. The product is memory. Pine and Gilmore called it years ago — experiences are distinct from services because they’re personal, emotional, and they live in the customer’s mind. Hospitality is the most efficient experience factory on earth.
Here’s the controversial part: the best operators aren’t benefiting from real estate — real estate is benefiting from them. A great bakery can raise the perceived value of an entire development more effectively than a new lobby, a rooftop deck, or a polished leasing brochure. Yet landlords still underwrite them like they’re risky “food users,” then squeeze them for maximum rent as if they were a replaceable nail salon.
Who really creates the value?
That mismatch is becoming one of the biggest unspoken problems in cities.
Developers now market buildings with phrases like “steps from your favourite coffee” or “surrounded by vibrant dining.” Translation: hospitality has become an amenity. The cafe is the gym. The restaurant is the residents’ lounge. The bakery is the neighbourhood’s social glue. But unlike a gym or a lobby, it’s operated by a small business that gets none of the upside it creates. We’ve built an economic model in which landlords capture the value of atmosphere while operators bear the risk of producing it.
And then we act surprised when neighbourhoods turn sterile.
In the experience economy, hospitality isn’t a side tenant category. It’s the marketing department, the community centre, and the brand story for the entire asset. When landlords treat it like disposable retail, they don’t just kill businesses — they kill the very atmosphere they’re trying to monetize.
The next wave of development won’t be won by the tallest tower or the lowest capital costs. It’ll be won by whoever understands this uncomfortable reality: the most valuable part of a property might be the croissant line out front — and the smartest landlords will stop trying to extract it to death.
Will Odwarka
Will Odwarka is Founder and CEO of Heartatwork Hospitality
Consulting and member of the ACROSS Advisory Board. Now based in Dubai, he has been working Now based in Dubai, across Europe, Asia and the Middle East for more than 30 years.
