He’s the American tycoon who is planning to transform London’s landmark BT Tower into an ‘iconic’ hotel for the ages.
Harvard-educated businessman Tyler Morse, the founder of US hotel empire MCR Hotels, has his sights on the Grade II-listed building which has long been a distinctive feature of the skyline.
Having bought the landmark in a £275million deal, the visionary American hotel supremo today vowed to make the building a venue that could be adored by families of all classes and backgrounds.
It’s a long way from the days when the married father-of-two started out as a baggage handler for Delta Airlines.
And it appears that Morse has tried his hand at almost everything in the world of hospitality – not only hauling heavy bags at LA International Airport, but also clearing tables at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hawaii and scrubbing cars along the famous Redondo Beach city in California.
MCR Hotels chief executive Tyler Morse pictured with his wife of 16 years Rebecca Morse
The American tycoon started out as a baggage handler for Delta Airlines and has tried his hand at almost everything in the world of hospitality
Perhaps most surprisingly, he even worked as a ski instructor on the slopes of Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe and in Chile.
Morse grew up in Los Angeles with his father, Richard Morse, the general lawyer for petroleum giant The Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), and his travel agent mother, Roxanne Morse.
After graduating from the University of California, in Berkeley, Morse went to the prestigious Harvard Business School where he met his wife Rebecca Brogan before moving to New York.
The pair wed in November 2008 and have two daughters together and the football-mad family are said to be staunch supporters of Welsh Championship club Swansea City.
In an interview with Brown Brothers Harriman in 2020, the fitness fanatic and marathon runner told of how he was ‘very proud of the diversity of my experience’ .
From out of Harvard he landed a job at Starwood Hotels as the company’s billionaire CEO Barry Sternlicht’s ‘right hand guy’.
But his big break came when the company bought spa and beauty company Bliss with Sternlicht suggesting he ran the business.
Sales swelled from $30million to £110million in under four years under Morse’s stewardship.
But having ‘decided I didn’t want to spend my career in the cosmetics business’, the entrepreneur started MCR Hotels in 2006 with just a single hotel in Alabama.
The US hotel chain is now the third largest hotel-owner-operator in the US and has a $5 billion portfolio – the equivalent of approximately £3.9 billion – of around 150 hotels, including the TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
Pictured left to right: Morse, Rebecca Morse, and Laurent Boidevezi at the Annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in New Jersey, in 2015
The entrepreneur started MCR Hotels in 2006 with just a single hotel in Alabama
Morse (far right) at the Royal Academy America Gala, New York, in 2017. Pictured with his wife Rebecca (second from the right; Yvonne Force Villareal (far left), and Leo Villareal
Now that portfolio includes London’s iconic BT Tower after he bought it for £275million with plans to turn it into an ‘iconic hotel’.
Morse has vowed it will be ‘accessible for everyone’ but it appears Londoners and Britons will have to pay separately for checking in early or late.
The MCR chief executive trialled ‘drip pricing’ – like budget airlines such as Ryanair use – on some of his hotels in 2021 which included tourists having to pay to use the swimming pool.
Speaking to CNBC in 2021, he said he had taken inspiration from the airline industry on how they pumped up their income by drip pricing.
‘If you look at high-end of hotel business they’ve been doing this for years, if not since the beginning of time,’ he said.
‘People want to customise their experience and by unbundling the product it allows people to have a more customised experience.’
Morse this morning laid out his grandiose vision for the communications tower in London’s Fitzrovia.
He enthusiastically gushed it would be a ‘special product you can take your sweetie to’, yet couldn’t confirm how many rooms the 581ft tall building would have which has been closed to the public for more than five decades.
Mr Morse vowed ‘it would be accessible to the world’ as he poured scorn over claims it would be a luxury hotel for the elite.
Yet Londoners and Britons will have to wait years before seeing the American’s dreams become reality with blueprints for the project not even being drawn up yet.
BT Tower’s new American owner says the London landmark he bought for £275million will become ‘an iconic hotel’ – despite not having planning permission for it
MCR Hotels chief executive Tyler Morse this morning laid out his grandiose vision for the communications tower in London’s Fitzrovia and vowed it would be ‘accessible’ for everyone
A so-called listening tour will take place for up to the next two years to rake in views from members of the public.
How many rooms the hotel will have is ‘still up in the air’ Mr Morse told BBC Radio 4 this morning, but he says they won’t cost the ‘price to the moon’.
‘We want this building to be accessible to everybody to everyone in the United Kingdom to everyone in the world and it’s going to be a reasonable price point,’ he said.
‘Luxury hotels don’t necessarily need to be the thing.’
The lauded architect behind London’s 2012 Olympic cauldron and sculpture B of the Bang in Manchester, Thomas Heatherwick CBE, has been drafted in to work on the design and to help drive down costs.
Some of his previous projects have sparked controversy – such as the panned Garden Bridge project in London, and the Tree of Trees sculpture to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee which was described by the Guardian’s architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, as ‘a gross misuse of carbon-hungry steel’.
‘It’s going to be an iconic hotel with spectacular views, but we don’t have planning permission yet to make it a hotel,’ Mr Morse said.
‘It’s going to be a special special product that you’re going to take your sweetie to the BT tower and have cocktails, to have drinks, to have an amazing stay… it’s going to be a lot of fun.’
Mr Morse wouldn’t reveal costs behind revamping the tower into a hotel although they won’t be ‘insignificant’, he said.
A so-called listening tour for up to the next two years will rake in views from members of the public
Philip Gorgio was the supervisor of the Tower’s revolving restaurant in 1980, which later closed due to security fears
The structure is still fondly remembered for its revolving restaurant that attracted the biggest stars of its day, including The Beatles , Muhammad Ali , Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones
Tragically, the revolving restaurant was closed amid security fears after a bomb exploded in the men’s toilet on the 31st floor
Construction of the tower began in June 1961 and was officially opened in 1965 by Labour prime minister Harold Wilson
Saying he wants the hotel to create memories rather than ‘stuff’, he added: ‘Experiences are now in, stuff is out. People don’t need any more tennis rackets or canoes.
‘They just want to have memories with their families and their loved ones and something that has been part of their life forever to be brought back to life. It’s going to take some time.’
Payment for the sale will be made over multiple years, with final payment being made on completion of the purchase.
The sale comes after BT Group sold its former headquarters in St Paul’s for £210 million in 2019, moving to a new office in Aldgate.
The building in St Paul’s will eventually be occupied by HSBC following their departure from 8 Canada Square in Canary Wharf.
The tower was originally commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO) – the historic state telecommunication service which was eventually disbanded in 1969 – and was formerly known as the Post Office Tower or GPO Tower.
The tower’s most famous appearance was in 1971 when the it is toppled by a giant kitten in an episode of The Goodies titled ‘Kitten Kong’, a parody of King Kong
The tower was originally commissioned by the General Post Office (GPO) – the historic state telecommunication service which was eventually disbanded in 1969
The devastating blast in 1971, caused by a bomb in the men’s toilets, damaged buildings and cars up to 400 yards away
Workers and officials inspected the damage caused to the Post Office Tower (now known as the BT Tower) following the bomb explosion on 31st October 1971
The communications tower has been noted for its unique cylindrical shape, which later featured a 360 degree coloured LED screen near the top of the tower
Famously, the tower has made several notable appearance in film and television, including The Bourne Ultimatum, Doctor Who, V for Vendetta, and Danger Mouse.
But its most famous appearance was in 1971 when it was toppled by a giant kitten in an episode of The Goodies titled ‘Kitten Kong’, a parody of King Kong.
The building was last accessible to the public in 1971 had a restaurant on the revolving top floor.
But it was closed off that year when a suspected IRA bomb exploded on the 31st floor. Although no one was injured it took two years to be repaired.