Alex Calderwood, Founder of Ace Hotels, Passes Away

Alex Calderwood, the young and iconic cofounder of Ace Hotels, has passed way, according to a short post on Ace's blog. No reason was given by the company.

"Yesterday Alex Calderwood passed away.

Alex was our teacher, mentor, guru and most importantly our dear friend.

We will miss him."

Alex was 45 years old. Calderwood opened its first hotel in Seattle in 1999, and since then hotels have cropped up in Portland, Palm Springs, New York City and the latest one in Shoreditch, London.

Quoted in a story by New York Times published just yesterday, he talked about what the brand Ace stood for: "We’re just one thread in a fabric of a changing economy...The businesses that are surfacing in the neighborhood share the same type of company personality as us...We obviously have to get the basics of hotel accommodation right, but what is slightly different with our hotel is our service perspective..It’s more peer-to-peer, friends-taking-care-of-friends."

This is especially true for what Ace Hotel on 29th and Broadway did to one of the last bastions of ungentrified Manhattan, with the area around it transformed enough, but still retains its immigrant-heavy commercial roots.