The rumors are true: an Ace Hotel will open in Broadway's old United Artists Theatre. The gossip started in the fall, when Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners bought the building for $11 million (*one of the decades-old Jesus Saves signs was taken down in September)--at the time, Ace owner Alex Calderwood denied the chain's "involvement" with the theater in an email to blogger Brigham Yen, but now The Hollywood Reporter says that "Multiple sources confirm that the boutique hospitality firm has reached an agreement with Greenfield Partners" and that "the Ace intends to make a fully renovated and reactivated theater the showpiece of its future hotel." This will be LA's first Ace, a chain that pretty much sets the gold standard for slavishly hip, boutiquey hotels. This big news is just in time for the theater's birthday--it opened on December 26, 1927 with the Mary Pickford picture My Best Girl. The building was designed by C. Howard Crane and built by the UA gang (Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, Pickford) to host premieres. Pastor Gene Scott and his Wescott Christian Center occupied the building starting in the late eighties.
· Ace Hotel Coming to Downtown L.A. (Exclusive) [The Hollywood Reporter]
· Downtown's United Artists Theatre Sells, Hotel Rumors Persist [Curbed LA]
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