MCR Development CEO, Tyler Morse Honored at Air & Space Gala

Over 500 museum supporters and attendees came out to celebrate and honor this year’s award recipients at the 16th Annual Air & Space Gala at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018. Apollo 7 Astronaut, Walter Cunningham received the Spirit of Discovery Award; East/West Industries President Teresa Ferraro received the Leroy R. Grumman Award; and CEO and Managing Partner, MCR Development, Tyler Morse, received the Aviation Leadership Award. As part of the year’s 50th Anniversary Countdown to Apollo Celebration, inspiration was the theme of the evening.

Tyler Morse received the Aviation Leadership Award. He commented how thrilled he was to be part of the aviation community having previously been part of the real estate development and hotel businesses, noting it took a village to put man on the moon and takes a village to restore a historic building, referring to the stylish new and highly anticipated, vintage TWA hotel and restaurant/bar his development company is working on at JFK airport, but having the greatest time in the world doing it.

He referenced JFK’s speech about putting man on moon by end of decade and the spirit of jet aviation with the country looking skyward and acknowledged the ethos and spirit of the 60s, specifically 1962, embodied by Grumman and the engineers on LI , and in NYC and in the country and is excited to bring it back. He acknowledged and thanked many of the people he has worked with in the room including Arthur Molins, General Counsel the Americas, Lufthansa German Airlines, who introduced him and Andrew Parton, President of the Cradle of Aviation Museum for the award. He added, "This is an incredible museum and The Cradle of Aviation does a wonderful job of bringing together the aviation community in such wonderful ways to celebrate the greatness of aviation.” And he marveled at the advancement of technology over the years noting that in 1962, 50 mm people flew on an airplane compared to 150 mm in 2017, reminding the attendees that 50 years prior to 1962 people were riding horses. He acknowledged how far this community has come together since 1962 and shared his excitement to see what happens in the next fifty years.

Since co-founding MCR in 2006, Mr. Morse has led the company to its position as the seventh largest hotel owner/operator in the United States. With $2 billion of assets under management, MCR owns and operates 94 hotels (11,264 rooms) located across 67 cities and 24 states. Prior to founding MCR, Mr. Morse served as Assistant to the Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts (Barry Sternlicht) and contributed to Starwood's overall corporate investment and development initiatives.