I was walking through the new town square development in Springfield and noticed they're using a lot of that thin brick veneer on the storefronts. | Bricklayers - The Community Guide
That thin brick veneer is everywhere now. My local grocery store redid their front with it last year. It's on the new apartment building going up on 5th Street too. It feels like the default choice for making something look a bit nicer without the cost of real masonry. You get the look without the solid feel, which sums up a lot of new construction for me.