UK: Moda Living and Apache have appointed Richard Smith as managing director of Moda Life Management, the operational arm of the JV’s £2.5 billion BTR portfolio.
Smith is tasked with growing the build-to-rent business and aims to build Moda Life into “a leading serviced living and lifestyle platform”.
With 30 years’ experience in hospitality, Smith has previously held positions at De Vere and Marriott. As brand and operations director at De Vere, he oversaw the community engagement programmes for the portfolio of 22 De Vere hotels and conference centres in the UK.
He will initially focus on creating a 150-strong team over the next five years. “Getting the right teams in place is the key ingredient in bringing the essence of Moda to life, and by employing local people, our values will flood out into the local community organically,” said Smith.
“We want our own team to be as powerful brand ambassadors as our residents and to show the community that we are a neighbour. By communicating that a Moda neighbourhood is so much more than four walls, we can transform the residential sector and deliver experiences to residents previously associated with an exclusive hospitality environment. There is still much work to be done on educating what BTR really represents in the UK. We will build a community culture that is customised to whichever city we are operating in, whilst ensuring that siloed teams across the UK maintain a core set of brand standards to align our Next Generation Neighbourhoods irrespective of location or target resident,” he added.
