DALLAS, Texas/GERMANTOWN, Tennessee—RREAF Holdings announced the formation of MxR Hospitality, a strategic partnership with hospitality investor Philip McNeill, Sr. The collaboration aims to develop extended-stay hotels nationwide and create a hospitality management company dedicated exclusively to the extended-stay segment.
“Our experience with third-party property management in our multifamily portfolio showed us firsthand the challenges of maintaining quality and consistency,” said Eric Watts, director of extended stay, RREAF Holdings. “We created our in-house property management firm, RR Living to address these challenges, and we saw similar gaps in the extended-stay sector, where these assets are often underserved. With MxR Hospitality, our goal is to bring the same commitment to operational excellence and best-in-class management to extended-stay hotels, both within our portfolio and across the industry.”
Among his career accomplishments, Phillip McNeill, Sr. was one of the first franchise owners of a Hampton Inn, opening the second location in its history in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1984; and was, at one time, the largest franchise owner of Hampton properties. McNeill, Sr. also served as chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO for the publicly traded Equity Inns, Inc. real estate investment trust from the company’s founding in 1993 to January 2005. He has also held the position of non-executive chairman of Equity Inns, Inc. at the time of its sale in 2007 to a real estate fund of Goldman Sachs for $2.2 billion, with a portfolio of 138 hotels.
“Phillip McNeill, Sr. is a trailblazer in the hotel industry, known for his investment acumen and belief in the importance of long-term partnerships based on mutual respect and benefit,” said Kip Sowden, chairman and CEO, RREAF Holdings. “We see excellent potential and a strong operating model for economy extended stay properties in today’s marketplace.”
With the extended-stay sector experiencing growth over the past three years, MxR Hospitality aims to leverage decades of combined hospitality and ownership expertise to enhance both existing economy extended-stay assets and those currently under development.
Backed by RREAF Holdings’ leadership team with over 150 years of combined real estate and development experience, alongside Philip McNeill, Sr.’s success in the hospitality industry, MxR Hospitality brings an understanding of commercial real estate to the joint venture.
