Oakwood Forms Strategic Partnership with WaterWalk, Creating Visionary New Hospitality Brand
New Oakwood WaterWalk offering set to transform the extended stay, multifamily, and corporate housing markets; significantly expands and diversifies Oakwood's footprint in the United States.
LOS ANGELES, May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Oakwood, wholly owned by Mapletree Investments ("Mapletree") announced today it has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with WaterWalk International, a DeBoer family entity, to create a new brand, Oakwood WaterWalk. The purpose-built product provides a unique combined offering, including 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom apartments, that fully satisfies the wide spectrum of needs across the extended stay, multifamily, and corporate housing segments.
Through this strategic partnership, Oakwood, the premier global provider of furnished housing and serviced apartment solutions, will expand its footprint in the U.S. across eight high demand markets, broadening its product offering. These markets in which properties are open or under construction include: Denver, Dallas-Las Colinas, Dallas-Richardson, San Antonio, Wichita, Kansas City-Overland Park, Raleigh, and Charlotte. Further, with WaterWalk's development pipeline, approximately 13 additional sites will be available and opening soon in Austin, Minneapolis, Dallas-Plano, Salt Lake City, Boise, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. WaterWalk has signed certain franchise agreements to triple the portfolio and continues to open doors for new investors to enter this growing segment and provide additional opportunities to become a franchisee.
"Our strategic partnership with WaterWalk, one of the nation's most innovative extended stay brands, enables us to significantly expand our U.S. footprint and offer our clients even more options to fit their travel and relocation stay needs," explained Chris Ahearn, chief executive officer, Oakwood. "The extended stay hotel segment is the fastest growing segment in the U.S. as business and individual travelers continue to seek housing options that allow for a flexible length of stay, without sacrificing the comfort and amenities of spacious furnished and serviced apartments or from existing hotel offerings."
"The WaterWalk product is an innovative concept built on the culmination of our extensive experience in the development of thousands of apartments and hundreds of hotels. We are very excited about the dynamic growth that will begin immediately for the new brand as a result of our partnership with Oakwood," affirmed Jack DeBoer, founder and chief executive officer, WaterWalk.
"The global brand recognition and unrivaled industry experience that Oakwood brings to WaterWalk will create an unparalleled investment opportunity while simultaneously delivering a solution to accommodate underserved market needs," explained Mimi Rogers, executive vice president, WaterWalk.
Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, WaterWalk was created by Jack DeBoer, the extended stay industry visionary who also founded Residence Inn (now Marriott), Summerfield Suites (now Hyatt House), Candlewood Suites (now IHG) and Value Place/WoodSpring (now Choice Hotels International). The WaterWalk development concept is unique in the travel industry. The properties combine the space and comfort of apartment living with the services of a hotel, allowing business and individual travelers to book short- and long-term stays and choose from furnished or unfurnished suites. Each property typically offers two separate, purpose-built buildings consisting of 153 units; approximately 78 units are multifamily unfurnished and 75 units will be furnished corporate and extended stay units.
Oakwood WaterWalk pricing includes all utilities, high-speed internet, DirecTV cable television, and phone service for nightly or monthly rates. All rooms come with fully-equipped modern kitchens and a full-size in-room washer and dryer. Guests can also enjoy upscale amenities including an onsite fitness center, breakfast delivered to each room, housekeeping, and 24/7 front desk service.
For information about franchising this unique opportunity, please contact Gina McKee, vice president, Franchise Development at WaterWalk Franchise Services at [email protected].
About Oakwood®
Oakwood®, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mapletree Investments, is the leading global accommodation solutions provider helping businesses and individual travelers be anywhere they need to be. With an extensive and flexible selection of move-in ready furnished and serviced apartments, Oakwood has enabled thousands of companies to expand their reach to more customers and markets. The award-winning company continues investing in its exclusive and growing portfolio of Oakwood-branded properties throughout the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia Pacific) offering travelers a broad range of accommodation options from apartments with luxurious style and full amenities to sensible accommodations with modern essentials. For more information, please visit www.Oakwood.com.
About WaterWalk
WaterWalk combines the most appealing features of an upscale extended-stay hotel with the lifestyle of apartment living. By design, the innovative prototype efficiently penetrates target market segments such as relocations and corporate projects/trainings. A marquee brand innovation created by an accomplished leadership team with over 200 years of combined experience and brand building across various lodging sectors, WaterWalk is the fifth national brand started by Jack DeBoer, including Residence Inn, Summerfield Suites, Candlewood Suites, and Value Place/Woodspring. For more information, please visit www.WaterWalk.com.
About Mapletree
Mapletree is a leading real estate development, investment, capital and property management company headquartered in Singapore. Its strategic focus is to invest in markets and real estate sectors with good growth potential. By combining its key strengths, the Group has established a track record of award-winning projects, and delivers consistent and high returns across real estate asset classes.
Mapletree currently manages four Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) and six private equity real estate funds, which hold a diverse portfolio of assets in Asia Pacific, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).
As at 31 March 2018, Mapletree owns and manages S$46.3 billion of office, retail, logistics, industrial, residential, corporate housing / serviced apartment, and student accommodation properties.
The Group's assets are located across 12 economies globally, namely Singapore, Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the UK, the US, and Vietnam. To support its global operations, Mapletree has established an extensive network of offices in these countries.
For more information, please visit www.mapletree.com.sg.
SOURCE Oakwood
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