Dominique Greco, Founder & Executive Director, Orlando Hospitality Alliance
Orlando’s hospitality ecosystem is evolving under the combined pressure of rising costs, shifting consumer habits, and a downtown that is redefining itself. As founder and executive director of the Orlando Hospitality Alliance and a commercial real estate broker with First Capital Property Group, Dominique Greco sits at the intersection of small business, policy, and placemaking. Greco talked to Invest: about the Alliance’s focus on making support more accessible for entrepreneurs while encouraging local leaders to rethink how they regulate and plan experience-driven spaces. “We need local government to be at least as creative as the market itself, not years behind it,” Greco said.
In the past year, what operational or financial changes at the Orlando Hospitality Alliance illustrate the broader changes happening across the hospitality industry?
The cost of doing business in hospitality and experiential industries has continued to rise, not just in Central Florida but across the country. At the same time, the time and resources available to entrepreneurs are getting tighter. In a small business, the entrepreneur is often the heartbeat, the driver, the conductor, and the chef all at once, especially in the early stages of growth. When pressures increase nationally, they are felt in a very real and hyper-local way.
For us, that reality drove a fundamental shift in our model. Orlando Hospitality Alliance used to operate as a membership-based organization, where small-business owners joined to participate in programming and support. We have now removed that barrier entirely. We no longer operate as a dues-based group; instead, we function as a free resource for hospitality owners and operators across Central Florida.
To make that accessibility tangible, we launched a 24/7 text-based helpline for entrepreneurs. It formalizes what, for years, was essentially my personal cellphone acting as an informal hotline. Texting reflects how this segment of the market actually communicates. Many of the people we serve are not sitting in front of a computer or checking email constantly. They are on the floor, in their kitchens, or managing venues. By moving to a simple, always-on text line, we remove friction and meet them where they are.
What recent policy conversations or municipal updates has the Alliance been most engaged with, and how are they shaping the business landscape?
We remain very vocal about what is happening in the downtown entertainment area. That part of the city has faced heightened scrutiny for several years, especially since COVID, and it sits at the intersection of state dynamics and local priorities. Orlando is a Florida city, so we navigate broader state policy while also working with a community that often wants to take a different approach. That creates a complex puzzle.
At the same time, the way people use hospitality spaces has changed. People are drinking less, spending their discretionary dollars differently and redefining what their “third place” looks like. These shifts influence everything from transportation and one-way versus two-way streets to sidewalk widths, density and how many hospitality uses should be clustered on a single block. Oversaturation can be just as problematic as under-supporting diversity.
Downtown Orlando has gone through many seasons over the past few decades, with high highs and low lows. We work to help decision-makers understand what is actually profitable, what is on trend and what will attract the kind of spending and activity the city wants. Our role is to ask hard questions, propose alternatives and maintain a real-time feedback loop between operators on the ground and the people writing the rules that govern them.
How are you using the Alliance’s platform to strengthen business education and operational support in a more practical way for entrepreneurs?
The helpline is now our primary tool for delivering direct, practical support. Traditional events and panels still matter, and we continue to host gatherings with an educational component, but most operators need help in the middle of their day when something urgent has gone wrong. The hotline lets us respond in real time and then build education around the patterns we observe.
Questions range widely. Some are crises, like plumbing issues that need immediate solutions, and others are more strategic, involving land-use questions or financing. We route these inquiries through a board of advisers made up of successful entrepreneurs, public officials, and subject-matter experts. The board intentionally includes specialties, such as land use, commercial real estate, legal,and finance, so that we can give entrepreneurs informed guidance rooted in real expertise.
Each inquiry becomes a small case study. We research it, share what we learn internally, and become better prepared for future situations. A significant part of our work is making targeted referrals, whether to vendors like plumbers, roofers or attorneys, or to peers and potential collaborators. Many introductions made through the Alliance have turned into long-term business relationships or new ventures, which is incredibly fulfilling. We are careful about whom we refer, ensuring partners are local, small-business friendly and aligned with a community-first mindset.
From your advocacy work and your commercial real estate perspective, which industry challenges are having the most pronounced impact on hospitality businesses?
All of them: labor availability, wage pressures, cost of goods, and real estate costs are converging at once. On the labor side, the workforce that creates our restaurant, bar, and hotel experiences changed dramatically during COVID, when many people left the industry. Hospitality work is emotionally and physically demanding, and that reality shapes today’s labor market.
When you layer that onto compensation levels, you see a gap between what a venue can afford to pay and what an employee needs to sustain their household. Owners want to deliver a great guest experience, but they also have to keep their teams feeling valued and supported. There is no easy formula for that.
Real estate is the other major challenge. Prime, walkable, urbanized locations are where today’s consumers want to be, and those spaces support the kind of socialization the community is craving. But they are also the most expensive. Some areas of town are thriving while others are in transition, and entrepreneurs must interpret those trends, secure a viable site and still leave enough margin for staffing, supplies, and operations. Opening an experiential business today requires tremendous grit and a willingness to bet on oneself.
How do you expect regional economic conditions and the hospitality landscape to evolve over the next two to three years?
I am very optimistic about Central Florida, but realizing that potential will depend heavily on local policy. Over the next two to three years, the gap between markets that evolve and those that fall behind will come down to decisions made at the local level.
We are entering a new phase of hospitality that is far more experiential and wellness-oriented. People are seeking spaces that blend social connection, movement, recovery, food and beverage, and creative programming. These are not traditional uses, and they don’t fit neatly into existing categories.
That creates a real inflection point. Either local policy evolves to support these hybrid, multi-use concepts, or Central Florida risks lagging behind markets that are already adapting. If permitting, zoning, and licensing frameworks remain rigid, the most innovative operators will simply go where they can execute more freely.
At the same time, large-scale developments and institutional investment will continue to shape the region, but they are only part of the story. The real texture and energy of a place come from smaller, locally driven concepts. A cluster of independent businesses can generate as much economic and cultural impact as a single major project, often with greater long-term community value.
The opportunity in Central Florida is to lead, not follow. If local governments are willing to modernize codes, embrace flexible use categories, and actively support emerging concepts, the region can become a hub for the next wave of hospitality. If not, it risks missing a very real shift that is already underway.
