New York-based hotel brand Ace Hotel Group and management firm Atelier Ace named Chris Penn as its new chief executive officer on Wednesday, according to a LinkedIn post from Brad Wilson, the companies' most recent CEO and now managing partner.
Penn most recently founded the lifestyle hospitality company and consultancy Do^2. He previously served as the managing director for the now-closed Ace Hotel London from 2013 to 2016.
Ace Hotel Group has eight locations, with four properties in the U.S. and one property each in Greece, Japan, Canada and Australia.
In a LinkedIn post announcing his new role, Penn credited the brand for "platforming genuine and long-lasting relationships and partnerships, through openness, accessibility, freedom and collaboration" while lamenting the overall rise in automation in the industry.
"While automated and artificial, fake and false, hyper-connected and yet increasingly isolated are all becoming themes of the decade and cues to the future, Ace is, in my estimation, the one hotel brand that still, through independence, creativity and humanity (and a bucket load of resilience), remains true to its values," he wrote.
In early 2023, hospitality investment firm Sortis Holdings announced its intentions to acquire Ace Hotel's parent company, Ace Group International, for $85 million in an all-cash deal. The deal never crossed the finish line, however, as both parties filed and settled lawsuits regarding the sale before calling it off, the Portland Business Journal reports.
Among recent Ace Hotel deals, Ace Hotel & Swim Club Palm Springs sold for $60 million in October 2022 to JRK Property Holdings. Ace Hotel Brooklyn sold for $45 million to Safehold, Inc. in February 2021, according to CoStar data.
Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles — now the Stile Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa — was sold twice in 2019. It was first acquired in an 18-hotel deal by Park Hotels & Resorts for $119 million in September 2019 before Park sold it three months later for $117 million to AJU Hotel Seokyo Co.