We are pretty stoked to have an exclusive scoop on the upcoming Ace Hotel New York today. A Super Secret Hotel Insider tells us what will be inside when this hotel opens in either January or February of 2009. Enjoy.
I had not seen or heard much about the Ace Hotel until I finally had the opportunity to see it first-hand. It is located at Broadway between 28th and 29th St in an area of midtown Manhattan soon to be transformed into the NoMad district (North of Madison Square Park I guess.)
This company has 3 other properties in the Western US but this is their first NYC hotel. It is still under construction with only a model room open although they are shooting for a Winter 08/09 opening date.
The rooms are supposed to feel like you are staying in a hip friend's apartment in NYC. I have to say they succeeded.
Take a lookie here. That's a new room inside the Morgans Hotel hotel, one of Ian Schrager's first hotels ever. Morgans Hotel Group (Schrager's since left the company) decided to give the place a facelift. The new rooms will be available to guests starting August 28. The hotel will also be sporting new corridors and a new bar and lobby as well. Rooms for August 28 are currently going for $329 a night.
In our story yesterday about the upcoming Jane Hotel from hoteliers Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode, we largely focused on the micro-rooms that would be opening up in mid-August (does that qualify as an oxymoron? Anything with the word "large" next to "micro-rooms" must be.)
However, you aren't going to want to hole up in your room here--not when there will be so much action going on downstairs, upstairs and below stairs.
We were lucky enough to get a guided tour of the work-in-progress that is The Jane Hotel from none other than the supercool hotelier himself, Sean MacPherson.
While much of the place is still under construction as it transforms from rundown SRO housing to the budget-chic Jane, we were still able to see just how interesting this place will be when it opens.
We say interesting because if you know Sean MacPherson's work, along with his partner Eric Goode, they aren't in the business of building sterile, white boxes for people to spend the night. Although, it's funny we should say boxes....
No, this is not a set from "The Darjeeling Limited." It's Sean and Eric's new hotel!
As we all know The Hotel Riverview has been undergoing renovations to transform the place from old-timey mariners' boarding house to a sleek new boutique hotel from hoteliers Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode.
And last we heard the hotel was going to be a sort of Japanese-style love hotel for New York. Which turns out to be somewhat true.
Here are the exclusive inside pics of what will be called The Jane Hotel, where 50-sq.ft. rooms will start at the unheard-of-for-NYC budget price of $99.
Thanks to a generous insider we have a ton of pics from inside the first ever Element Hotel in Lexington, Mass. which we hear is going to open next week (not July 15.)
Element Hotels is the extended-stay brand for Starwood Hotels and is a spin-off brand of Westin Hotels. Much like Aloft (a spin-off of the W Hotels brand) is good for one night near the airport, Element is for business travelers who are put several days on a project in random places like Lexington.
Thus each room is very spacious complete with a souped-up work area and a kitchen. Essentially, it's the antithesis of Aloft.
Also, each hotel will aim to be LEED-certified, all rooms will feature the Westin Heavenly bed and spa-like bathrooms; a state-of-the-art fitness center on-site, complimentary breakfast and organic "pantry" options, and complimentary bikes for guests to tool around on.
But why do we need to write any more? Just take a look at the pics! (There's six in total.)
In case you didn't know, W Hotels has gone all crazy for Hotlanta and will have four W Hotels open in the city by the end of next year.
One of them will be the W Atlanta Buckhead which is undergoing a transformation from Crown Plaza ugly duckling to a beautiful W Swan. Or is it?
Tipster KB found these renderings of the hotel and sent them our way. KB says:
It's, um... interesting to say the least.
Actually, we're kind of happy it's not the same-old, same-old W design. But this sort of looks like the rooms inside a Kor Hotel, the LA-based hotel group that counts the Viceroy and the Tides among its brands. It's also got a touch or Morgans Hotel Group in it too. We say the designer smackdown is on!
We are pretty stoked to have an exclusive scoop on the upcoming Ace Hotel New York today. A Super Secret Hotel Insider tells us what will be inside when this hotel opens in either January or February of 2009. Enjoy. 
