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NATIONAL REPORT - The U.S. got its first Moxy hotel in early March with the opening of Marriott International's lifestyle brand in Tempe, Ariz. Behind the scenes, Twenty Four Seven Hotels-a Newport Beach, Calif.-based investment, development and management company-helped bring the project to life and set the stage for the brand's future growth in the U.S.
Twenty Four Seven already has a strong relationship with Marriott, CEO David Wani said. "Of the 15 hotels we manage, nine are Marriotts," he said. "We're one of the few companies that are third-party approved to manage Marriotts."
For nearly 10 years, the building that houses Moxy had been a Four Points hotel, previously converted from a Holiday Inn. "That brand was not performing for us, so we were discussing brand options with a lot of different companies," Wani said. One of those conversations was with Tony Capuano, Marriott's chief development officer, and Eric Jacobs, Marriott's chief development officer for North America lodging, who began talking about the Moxy brand that had just been established in Europe. "We thought it could be good for Tempe," Wani said. "It's a very hip city within the Phoenix area." In spring 2015, the company secured the franchise and began working on the hotel's design,...