The Guild Acquires CREA Management, Expanding Unit Portfolio by Thousands

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Guild, a tech-enabled hospitality startup delivering exceptional community-based flexible living experiences in urban areas, has acquired CREA Management LLC, the property management division of Cypress Real Estate Advisors ("CREA"), an innovative multifamily developer and investment firm with roots in sustainable design and over 25 years in the industry.

Capitalizing on shifting consumer and real estate market trends accelerated by the pandemic, the acquisition – which adds over 5,000 units to The Guild's portfolio and pipeline – was driven by the companies' shared desire to create an innovative, turnkey platform for living that can host all lengths and types of stays, leveraging a flexible, tech-enabled end-to-end solution. Marrying the convenience of flexible-term rentals with the comfort of hotel-like service and amenities, this new integrated platform will extend The Guild's mobile-driven hospitality experience beloved by travelers, corporate guests and untethered nomads to the full spectrum of renters.

"The pandemic truly accelerated the need for a platform that offers flexibility, authentic community, and the tech-enabled service that the modern renter population really wants – 70% of whom identify as Millennial or Gen Z," said Brian Carrico, Co-founder and CEO of The Guild. "The way people live, work, and travel has becoming increasingly intertwined, creating a timely opportunity to transform urban living into a more flexible and seamless experience for travelers and renters alike, while also driving significantly higher revenues for building owners."

The Guild – which currently manages over 2,000 units across twelve communities and seven markets, including Denver (Colo.), Bay Harbor (Fla.), Miami (Fla.), Cincinnati (Ohio), Austin (Texas), Dallas (Texas), and San Antonio (Texas) – merges the typical hotel and urban living experience, creating a sense of home for travelers or renters no matter where they find themselves. Envisioning a future where guests and renters' favorite cities have a Guild property waiting to welcome them to work, live, or travel, The Guild now has over 10,000 units under development in its pipeline.

The Guild's modern furnished apartments, set in prime locations, feature personalized service such as on-demand grocery stocking and housekeeping, paired with access to best-in-class building amenities like rooftop terraces, outdoor pools, state-of-the-art gyms, and private members' clubs, all made accessible to travelers and renters through a seamless tech-enabled platform. The brand has grown in demand in recent years as working, traveling, and living have become more linear, specifically among the Millennial and Gen Z generations who relish remote work, long for work-life integration, and already rely heavily on technology for rides, groceries, communication and more.

This new hybrid management offering is set to disrupt the rapidly growing flexible living and short-term rental sector, as well as the larger $1.3 trillion long-term rentals market. The acquisition positions The Guild as the only platform that enables owners to flexibly scale their short-term and long-term rentals mix across an entire or a partial building based on their unique investment goals. All of this further equips The Guild to serve travelers and renters across their full spectrum of needs – from an upscale hotel-like overnight stay, to a fully furnished months-long vacation rental, and even a more traditional annual lease.

The Guild will take on full property management operations, leveraging the success of CREA and CREA Management's exceptional multifamily expertise, which spans over two decades, and merge it with The Guild's operational excellence, developed from hosting hundreds of thousands of hotel stays, best-in-class tech-powered service, and community programming. In addition to offering its tech-powered hospitality services to existing long-term residents of CREA Management's apartment communities, The Guild plans to transition a select number of units at those communities into upscale, furnished flexible-term apartments, creating more flexible options for how to live in those communities.

The acquisition of CREA Management will not only help The Guild drive portfolio growth, but it will also add more senior talent to its executive team, including Katya Watson, who will serve as President of Multifamily Operations for The Guild. Additionally, John Burnham, Managing Director of CREA, the parent company of CREA Management, will sit on the Board of Directors for The Guild.

"CREA Management's guiding mission has always been to provide our guests with exemplary communities that meet their needs as they live, work, and play," said Burnham. "The Guild's clear understanding of the opportunities presented by the growing interest in flexible living paired with their hospitality expertise and desire to address the current gaps in the rental market made the decision to partner with The Guild very easy."

The Guild has plans to expand to 10,000 units in the top 25 markets over the next 18 months; target markets include Atlanta (Ga.), Boston (Mass.), Los Angeles (Calif.), Nashville (Tenn.), New Orleans (La.), Philadelphia (Pa.), and Washington (District of Columbia).

Burrows Consulting Group is acting as an advisor to The Guild to assist with the integration of the companies.

About The Guild
Founded in 2016, The Guild is a tech-enabled hospitality startup delivering exceptional community-based flexible living experiences in walkable urban areas. The Guild's modern furnished apartments set in prime locations feature personalized service, such as on-demand grocery stocking and housekeeping, paired with access to best-in-class building amenities like rooftop terraces, outdoor pools, state-of-the-art gyms, and private lounges, all made accessible to guests and renters through a seamless tech-enabled platform. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, The Guild currently operates over 2,000 upscale flexible living, short-term rental and long-term rental units across four states (Colo., Fla., Ohio, and Texas) and seven markets (Denver, Cincinnati, Bay Harbor, Miami, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio), with plans to expand to 10,000 units in the top 25 markets by the close of 2023. To learn more, visit theguild.co.

About Cypress Real Estate Advisors ("CREA")
Since its inception in 1995, CREA has developed and/or owned an excess of 25,000 multi-family homes, master-planned lots for 16,000 single-family homes, and developed over 2,000,000 square feet of mixed-use communities. CREA employs a direct and operationally intensive approach to real estate investing and, to that end, is vertically integrated including an in-house development arm. CREA is a silver member of the U.S. Green Building Council and has various building designations from both Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB). For more information, visit www.crea.com.

Contact:
Erica Badgley
(786) 600-3954 x658
[email protected]

SOURCE The Guild