May 2026 City Scoop: Atlantic City
City Grill
Jason J. Thomas
Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Strategic Development
T&T Construction Management Group
Developers are “rightsizing buildings with targeted square-footage mixes, staged parks and selective speculative product to match tempered demand and financing realities,” Thomas says. “That favors concrete tilt-up construction with repeatable rectangular footprints and faster delivery models. Affordable land that doesn’t need major improvement is scarce, construction materials and costs remain high and end users don’t want ‘oversized’ anymore.”
Thomas says smaller flex space warehouses are gaining momentum along with retrofitting existing buildings.
The challenge with rightsizing, Thomas says, is meeting Class A industrial performance standards within much tighter site constraints. “We are being asked to fit the same number of docks and truck courts on smaller parcels, maintain high clear heights without driving up costs and still deliver efficient, high-performance layouts. Balancing these demands will be one of the key design and construction hurdles in 2026 and the years ahead,” he says.
