StepStone Hospitality Formed to Provide Third-party Management to Upscale Independent Boutique and Branded Hotels

Experienced Team Brings Strong Asset Management Support and Restaurant Expertise to Optimize Returns

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—An elite group of senior hotel and restaurant officials with more than 90 combined years of operating and asset management experience announced the formation of a new third-party management company to operate upscale boutique and branded hotels and resorts.

Called StepStone Hospitality, the company is a sister organization to Hotel Asset Value Enhancement, Inc. (hotelAVE), one of the nation’s largest hotel real estate advisory firms specializing in hospitality asset management and due diligence.

StepStone will focus on hotels of up to 400 rooms, with an emphasis on urban and premium suburban boutique and branded properties located in the eastern half of the United States.

StepStone currently operates The Hotel Providence, (bottom left photo) a luxury, Four Diamond, boutique hotel in the heart of Rhode Island’s state capital and has had management oversight of luxury to three-star properties in Boston and New York.

The company distinguishes itself from other third-party management companies with a strong emphasis on strategy and asset management and unparalleled, in-depth restaurant expertise.

The company’s three principals are:

Thomas Russo, (top right photo) CEO and president, a 45-year hospitality veteran with extensive experience in hotel, resort and restaurant operations, including boutique hotels, major hotel chains and leading restaurants. He has developed and operated numerous award-winning restaurant concepts and is widely regarded as one of the industry’s most creative and strongest operators.

James McGrath, (middle left photo) chief operating officer and partner, with a 25-plus year career as an hotelier overseeing the operations of more than 250 hotels, both branded and independent. He most recently headed up hotel operations for Lodgian, Inc.’s 40-property portfolio.

Michelle Russo, (middle right photo) partner, brings a strong background in asset management and strategy with experience in hotels valued at more than $2 billion. She is president of hotelAVE and previously managed a $500 million hotel portfolio for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance. Russo is a former hospitality and real estate financial analyst at Deutsche Bank.

“We created StepStone to respond to specific requests from a number of institutional and private investors who wanted strong, hands-on operations by senior leadership, world-class strategic asset management and food and beverage expertise to generate the highest possible hotel investment returns in all phases of the economy,” said Thomas Russo.

“The missing ingredient in most third-party management is a strategic mind-set.

"In addition to on-site management, which focuses solely on day-to-day operations, every StepStone-managed property has a highly experienced regional support team that focuses on strategy.

"That team oversees only a limited number of hotels, and each team has an asset manager who is a true owner’s representative. That person is responsible for benchmarking and constantly seeking new ways to further enhance the operation and returns.”

The company has the ability to co-invest with owners, as well as bring multiple tranches of equity to projects.

StepStone Hospitality is located at:333 Westminster St. Suite 3Providence, R.I. 02903. PH (401) 865-6901.

Additional information about the company may be found at http://www.stepstonehospitality.com/.

Contact: Jerry Daly or Chris Daly, Daly Gray Public Relations, (703) 435-6293, jerry@dalygray.com