Ace Hotel is a chain of hotels headquartered inLos Angeles andNew York City. Founded in 1999 in Seattle, it operateshotels Internationally in 4 continents, with locations in; Brooklyn,New York City;Palm Springs, California;Seattle, Washington;Kyoto, Japan; Toronto, Canada; and Sydney, Australia with hotels soon to open in Athens, Greece and Fukuoka, Japan.
Former Ace Hotel Portland (now The Clyde Hotel by Kasa Living)Ace Hotel New YorkGuest room at Ace Hotel New YorkAce Hotel Kyoto
In 1999, the first Ace Hotel was opened. Friends Alex Calderwood, Wade Weigel, and Doug Herrick purchased and transformed aSeattlehalfway house into an affordable hotel that would appeal to thecreative class. Calderwood and Weigel had previously foundedRudy's, a reinvigorated traditional barbershop concept they started in Seattle, which eventually expanded to more than a dozen locations, along with an experiential marketing company known as Neverstop, and an audiovisual arts platform known as ARO.Space withPearl Jam co-founder Stone Gossard andKung Faux creator Mic Neumann, who is credited for bringing in such artists asKaws andShepard Fairey to decorate the walls of various Rudy's and Ace Hotel locations.[1]
In 2006, the group opened a second hotel in Portland, Oregon followed by properties in Palm Springs, California and New York City in 2009.[2]
In 2013, an Ace Hotel opened in the Shoreditch neighborhood ofLondon,[3] where Calderwood had defined a goal of opening a new Ace Hotel every "one to two years", before his untimely death at age 47 on November 16, 2013.[4]
In 2014, a downtown Los Angeles location of the Ace Hotel opened in a former theatre, followed by Ace Hotel locations in Pittsburgh in 2015, New Orleans in 2016, and Chicago in 2017.[citation needed]
In 2020, an Ace Hotel location opened inKyoto, Japan that was designed byKengo Kuma.[5] In September 2020, it was announced that Ace Hotel London Shoreditch would not reopen after being closed because of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[6]
In 2021, Ace Hotel opened locations in Brooklyn, New York; Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia.[citation needed]
In 2024 Ace is poised to open a hotel on the Athens Riviera in Greece.
In September 2025, Ace Group International, with its 8-property portfolio and in-house design studio Atelier Ace, was acquired by Japan'sSeibu Prince Hotels Worldwide for $90 million.
According to Calderwood, the style and furnishing of each Ace property is designed to reflect its location, with an eye towards re-imagining properties that are "challenged."[7]
Ace Hotel Athens
Ace Hotel Brooklyn
Ace Hotel Kyoto opened on June 11, 2020, in a building originally designed byTetsuro Yoshida for the Kyoto Central Telephone Company in 1926. TheregisteredTaishō era property was redesigned byKengo Kuma.[8][9]
Ace Hotel & Swim Club inPalm Springs, CA is a convertedHoward Johnson motel, formerly a Westward Ho. King's Highway, the hotel's on-site diner, is a convertedDenny's. There are two bars, the Amigo Room, and poolside, the Short Bus. The remodel was a collaboration with L.A.-based design firm,Commune.
Ace Hotel Seattle is a formerSalvation Army halfway house located in theBelltown neighborhood.
Ace Hotel Sydney
Ace Hotel Toronto opened July 2022. The first Canadian site for the Ace Hotel, the property is notable as their first original build.[13]
Former locations:
TheAmerican Trade Hotel is a restored five-story stucco building in theCasco Viejo historical district of Panama City.[14] It was associated with Ace Hotels for a number of years after its opening.
Ace Hotel Chicago Closed in 2021.
Ace Hotel London was in London'sShoreditch arts district, on the site of the original Shoreditch Empire music hall.[15] The groups first location outside of the US, Ace Hotel London Shoreditch closed in September 2020.[6]
Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles opened in January 2014 in the historic United Artists Building, with 180 rooms and a restored United Artists Theater performance venue. Closed in 2024.
Ace Hotel New Orleans opened in March 2016 in a 1928Art Deco building in New Orleans' Warehouse District.[16] Closed in 2024.
Ace Hotel Pittsburgh opened in an historicYMCA building in the city'sEast Liberty neighborhood in December 2015, and closed in 2021.
Ace Hotel Portland opened in 2006 at the formerClyde Hotel in downtown Portland. In its former incarnation, the hotel's lobby served as the setting for a scene from the filmDrugstore Cowboy. The property is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[17] The hotel left Ace, however, in 2024 to join the Kasa hotel group and became TheClyde Hotel by Kasa.
The 2011 episode "Blunderbuss" of the sketch comedy seriesPortlandia had a sketch set at the "Deuce Hotel", where the obnoxiously hip staff hand out complimentaryturntables andtypewriters to all guests;[18] it was a parody specifically of Ace Hotel Portland.[19]
On her songAce, rapperNoname talks about being at Ace Hotel in London.[20]
